Over the past 15 years or so, scientists have been using a new term, “lost species,” to refer to plants and animals that we can’t find anymore. But “lost” doesn’t exactly mean “extinct.” Matthew Forister, a biology professor at the University of Nevada, Reno, spoke with the RN&R to explain the difference.
Forister is an entomologist (aka bug scientist) who co-manages North America’s longest-running butterfly-monitoring program. He’s also editor-in-chief of the Journal of Lost Species, the first—and, so far, only—scientific journal dedicated to being a record of the search for lost species. The journal launched at UNR in early 2026 and is now online. Plans are in the works to publish the first hard copy early next year. The journal is free for readers to access and, unlike the many scientific journals that charge scientists exorbitant sums to be published, it is also free for authors.
Forister will give a talk, “Butterflies, Biodiversity, and Lost Species,” about the lost species concept and how it fits into our current knowledge of the contemporary biodiversity crisis, at noon, Friday, Sept. 18, at the Nevada Museum of Art, 160 W. Liberty St., in Reno. Admission is $15, or free for students and museum members.
Species loss is not exactly synonymous with extinction. What’s the difference?
We have a continuum from when species become more rare; densities decline; things become harder to find; and then, if they’re not protected, or if things don’t turn around, eventually they become extinct. There’s a middle ground in there that, for a long time, as scientists, we didn’t really know how to talk about. Decades and decades, it can be, when they’re really rare but probably not extinct yet.
Recently, this concept of being “lost” has come about. We can talk about species as being lost if we can’t find them. It doesn’t mean they’re extinct. It means we don’t know where they are.
Is it tricky to figure out the difference between lost and extinct?
Yeah, 100%. It takes the scientific community decades to agree that something is extinct— because that means there isn’t a single individual alive anywhere in the world. … If you can’t give me a record for something within the last 10 years, then we can agree it’s lost. And then, it’ll take a long time beyond that to understand what’s going on.
What implications does the “lost” designation carry? Does that make it easier to study a species? Or to fund a study?
It’s motivating, as opposed to saying we don’t have enough information. … If something becomes rare, and we don’t know where it is, and it becomes difficult to study, it kind of goes into this big, anonymous bin of species that we don’t know enough about. And that’s not very motivating; it’s not very clear-cut. But with the simple use of a word … “lost,” then all of a sudden everybody’s like, “Oh, it’s lost. We understand that, right? That means we need to go look for it.” It only takes one successful observation to reverse that designation. So, it’s clear; it’s motivating; it’s easier to raise money for, etc.
About the Journal of Lost Species—who has been sending submissions?
One of the great things that happened early on is we had a rapid spread of word of mouth, largely through people who work at the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and then … we got submissions from, really, all over the world. We have a rediscovered sawfish from South Africa. We have a lost rodent from northern India. We have an extinct fish from Turkey. We have some lost caterpillars from Costa Rica. It goes on and on. It’s been pretty exciting, and it’s been a great mix of sad news and exciting rediscoveries. I couldn’t have hoped for anything better.
Have species been lost in our own region in recent times?
For sure. … Nevada is a massively under-documented state in terms of biodiversity, partly because we have so few people. When it comes to insects in particular, which is my specialty, it’s easy to say that for the majority of insects, simply no one’s looking for them most of the time in Nevada.
We are planning some expeditions out of my lab to look for some beetles and some moths that haven’t been seen in decades.
Where will you look for them?
There are species of beetles at Sand Mountain … and then there’s a moth in Mineral County. … It hasn’t been seen in more than 10 years, so we want to go look for it.
Would you share a fun fact you’ve learned while studying species in the Great Basin and the Sierra Nevada?
I’m talking to a group … and somebody wants me to give them my favorite butterfly: The smallest butterfly in North America is the Western pygmy blue, and it migrates up to our area from as far south as Vegas every year. So, we see it around Reno. But then it dies back every year: It can’t survive the winter up here. So, it’s an attempt and a failure year after year after year, which is just a fascinating example of how nature is amazing—and imperfect.