Rediscovery of Papaipema dribi Barnes & Benjamin, 1926 (Noctuidae: Noctuinae: Apameini) After 95 Years

The purposes of this note are: 1) to describe the methodology employed for the rediscovery of Papaipema dribi Barnes & Benjamin, a species that was not collected in approximately 100 years. The rediscovery dispels any speculation the species might be extinct; 2) to describe the habitat and provide a list of plants in the location where it was rediscovered; 3) to encourage others to conduct extensive additional research, e.g., life history in frequently flooded habitats, topography and habitat requirements, soil requirements, and larval hostplants; and 4) to find several additional locations in the Lincoln National Forest thereby precluding the National Forest Service from initiating collecting restrictions on a species reported from only three locations in the Sacramento Mountains, Otero County, New Mexico, US. The description of P. dribi was based on a single male specimen collected in August at High Rolls, Otero County, New Mexico, US (Barnes & Benjamin 1926). High Rolls, located on the banks of Fresnal Creek in Fresnal Canyon, is approximately 2.7 km upstream from the mouth of Fresnal Canyon. The elevation of High Rolls is 1,988 m. The village was founded after completion of a railroad through landscapes of steep canyon walls up from Alamogordo, New Mexico, US into Fresnal Canyon. The railroad, completed in 1901 was intended to bring virgin timber down the mountain to lumber mills in Alamogordo, yet it opened the area to tourism and exploration (Friesen 1991). It was quickly settled and flourished with construction of accommodations for tourists, luxury vacation homes and concomitant degradation of native habitats. It seems clear that the railroad construction and tourist access to the area led to the collection of the holotype. In the early 1980s, another male of P. dribi, not included in the original description, was located among some unidentified specimens in the National Museum of Natural History (Smithsonian). The latter specimen, on loan to E. Quinter, had an old crumbling, nearly illegible label with the data “Bent, N.M.” (E. Quinter, in lit.). The location is thought to be the village of Bent in Otero County, New Mexico, US. Bent, elevation 1,794 m, is located on the banks of the confluence of Tularosa Creek, that flows down Tularosa Canyon, and the smaller Nogal Creek that flows down Nogal Canyon. Homesteads were made by Mexican people in Nogal Canyon in the early 1880s. The early homesteaders converted the natural habitats of Nogal Canyon’s bottom land to agriculture including farming, ranching, cattle grazing, and at least one orchard. The descendants, who proudly refer to themselves as Mexicans, of the early homesteaders retain ownership of the land (D. Salazar, pers, comm.). Both locations of the historical records are on the western side of the Sacramento Mountains, Otero County, New Mexico, US (Fig. 1). Both sites are approximately 50 m higher in elevation than the highest elevation of the bajada at each location at the base of the Sacramento Mountains. Both sites are where desert brushy vegetation is replaced by montane [or midmontane] forest. A bajada is the geologic feature of adjacent alluvial fans of falling or eroding rocky debris sloping down from the foot of the mountains to the desert floor. Bent, New Mexico is 24.15 km north of High Rolls, New Mexico. All three canyons experience flash floods and periodic substantial disturbances to the floodplain habitats.