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As a conservation biologist assigned to track
ALEx HARMON/CC BY-NC 4.0 DEED rare and declining species, the Oklahoma
Natural Heritage Inventory’s Brenda Smith
has spent the past six years digging through
scant and scattered records, wading through
hundreds of roadside patches, and rallying an
extended survey team with one goal in mind:
assessing the status of Oklahoma’s frosted
elfin butterfly populations.
“It was very daunting at first — wondering
if we would be able to find the species or do
years of surveys without success. But once we
got out in the field, we realized ‘this is doable.
We can tackle this.’”
The target may have been small — frosted elf-
ins have a wingspan of just over an inch and early
caterpillars can be as little as a single millimeter
— but Smith’s efforts paid off in a big way.
“Prior to our surveys, there were just a hand-
ful of frosted elfin records in the state,” Smith
said. “Now, there are 188 records of the spe-
cies in Oklahoma. We were able to bridge a gap and brought the num-
ber of known locations in Oklahoma to 52 sites in nine counties.
“With these records, we were able to re-evaluate the frosted elfin’s
status in Oklahoma using the NatureServe calculator and adjust the
S E E S H A R E S C I E N C E state ranking from an S1 — a species thought to be super rare — to an
SMALL S3. It’s still a species of concern but is further down the list.”
This surge of new data comes at an important time for Oklahoma
BUTTERFLY biologists as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is reviewing the frosted
elfin’s status across its 25-state range to determine if the species may
GETS BIG warrant protection under the Endangered Species Act. Smith was ini-
tially contacted about Oklahoma’s frosted elfin populations in 2017 as
STATUS UPDATE part of the USFWS’s Species Status Assessment and the discretionary
review is expected in the federal fiscal year 2025.
A TEAM FROM THE OKLAHOMA FROM MODEST BEGINNINGS…
BIOLOGICAL SURVEY TRACKED When Smith’s search for the frosted elfin began in 2018, all that was
S E E DOWN THE HANDFUL OF FROSTED known about the butterfly’s status in Oklahoma could be boiled down
ELFIN BUTTERFLY RECORDS FOR to a handful of records — nine in total — that were confined to three
THE STATE AND MADE IT THEIR counties and dated back about three decades.
MISSION TO INCREASE THE This shortage of records initially pointed to a limited population but was
NUMBER OF KNOWN LOCATIONS also likely a result of the butterfly’s understated appearance and behavior.
FOR THE SPECIES . “I often think these butterflies are akin to the birding world’s ‘little
brown jobber,’” Smith said. “They’re not showy. They’re not flashy. And
they’re skittish. They flit around so much within their host plant patch
that it’s hard to get a good look.”
34 OUTDOOR OKLAHOMA
