By Ben Neary, NMWF Conservation Director
The legislative session that ended last month saw New Mexico lawmakers add invertebrates to the state’s definition of “wildlife,” making them subject to protective regulations when that portion of the new law goes into effect in July 2026.
David Lightfoot, senior collections manager for arthropods at the Museum of Southwestern Biology and an associate professor in biology at the University of New Mexico, says he welcomes the prospect of increased state protections for invertebrate species.
“Invertebrates are the base of terrestrial and aquatic food webs in New Mexico,” Lightfoot said. “They are critically important in nutrient cycling and providing food for higher-level consumers. (The New Mexico Department of) Game and Fish focuses on the vertebrates, but the vertebrates depend on the invertebrates. So they are critically important, and under-recognized in that respect.”
Lightfoot will discuss the importance of increased protection for invertebrates at the New Mexico Wildlife Federation’s free “Wildlife Wednesday” presentation. The event starts at 5:30 p.m. April 9 at Marble Brewery’s Northeast Heights Location, at 9904 Montgomery Blvd., NE, in Albuquerque.
The NMWF worked with a coalition of conservation groups to support Senate Bill 5, the legislation to modernize the state wildlife agency, increase its funding and expand its purview to include invertebrates. Jesse Deubel, NMWF executive director, served as an expert witness for bill sponsors in committee hearings.
Lightfoot has been at UNM since 1991 and has monitored grasshopper populations at the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge for the past 33 years. He said his research shows how native communities are changing relative to climate change.
“Some species have declined considerably, especially in about the last decade,” Lightfoot said of the grasshopper populations on the Sevilleta. “And overall, the grasshopper communities are highly variable now, and it appears to be the result of global warming affecting the timing and amount of rainfall particularly in the summer. Our monsoon season is no longer predictable like it used to be, and that’s having a huge effect on lots of insects.”
Invertebrates that live in rivers and streams serve as food for fish. Many bird species, meanwhile, rely on grasshoppers and other invertebrates for food. As grasshopper populations fall, populations of important game birds such as quail and turkey follow.
In addition to Lightfoot’s work on grasshoppers, he and his colleagues work on overall insect conservation.
“I’m doing quite a bit of work on pollinating insects, especially in New Mexico, mainly to determine what species are in need of conservation management,” Lightfoot said. He and his associates started a study last summer monitoring pollinating insects in the Jemez Mountains.
State wildlife agencies around the country must compile a list every five years of the animal species that are in greatest need of conservation in their states as a condition of receiving federal grant money through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. New Mexico is working on its plan and intends to approve the final version later this year.
“We approached Game and Fish a couple of years ago and asked if there was any chance of getting insects added to the 2025 State Action Plan,” Lightfoot said.
In response, the New Mexico game department approved a grant that allowed Lightfoot and other biologists to compile a list of the 100 pollinating insects in the state in greatest need of conservation. Those species are now listed on the state’s draft 2025 Wildlife Action Plan.
“We are going to continue working with Game and Fish, particularly now that insects are being included, for more work on insects with the real focus on species of greatest conservation need, of which there are many here in New Mexico,” Lightfoot said.
The legislation that passed this year also changes the name of the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish to the New Mexico Department of Wildlife, effective July 2026. The move recognizes the expansion of the department’s responsibilities beyond primarily managing game and fish for hunting and angling opportunities.
Lightfoot said bringing invertebrates under the department’s control and listing them on the state action plan will help to inform decisions by state and federal land management agencies that could affect invertebrate populations.
“It’s going to mean that they’re going to have more considerations for any kind of projects that might have adverse impacts,” Lightfoot said. “It’s also going to mean that insects are going to become important as indicator species for environmental change, particularly aquatic insects.
“Aquatic insects are really important as indicators of changes in stream water quality, things like that,” Lightfoot said. “A lot of terrestrial insects are also good indicators. So, in addition to managing the insect species themselves that are in need of conservation management, other insect species can be used as bioindicators of environmental problems.”
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in early 2023 announced its listing of the Sacramento Mountains checkerspot butterfly as an endangered species. The move came in response to multiple petitions and lawsuits from the Center for Biological Diversity, which has said that only two populations of the butterflies remain because its habitat has been degraded by grazing, development and motorized recreation.
Establishing state oversight for invertebrate species will make management of them far more streamlined than it would be under federal control, Lightfoot said.
“I expect many more species will get recognition through the state that would not be achieved at the federal level. So it’s really big for the state of New Mexico and for the invertebrates in the state,” Lightfoot said.
“Senate Bill Five is going to increase the amount of information that’s available for people to refer to. We’re going to learn a lot more about insects, including native bees,” Lightfoot said. “By having that bill in place, there will be funding available to do research on them. There will be just overall more knowledge about what’s out there.”