Species ranked as May Be At Risk

One of the aims of the Wild Species series is to help COSEWIC prioritize species for detailed status assessments. The species that are ranked as May Be At Risk by the National General Status Working group are species that could be candidates for more detailed assessments by COSEWIC. In this report, a total of 806 species were ranked as May Be At Risk (table 39). The taxonomic groups that had the most species ranked as May Be At Risk were the vascular plants (444 species), followed by lichens (100 species), mosses (71 species) and spiders (62 species). The complete list (among assessed taxonomic groups) of species ranked as May Be At Risk can be found on the Wild Species website in the database or in the search tool.

Table 39. Number of species ranked by the National General Status Working Group as May Be At Risk at the Canada level that could be potential candidates for a more detailed assessment by COSEWIC.

Taxonomic group Number of species ranked as May Be At Risk Proportion of all species ranked as May Be At Risk
Lichens 100 12%
Mosses 71 9%
Vascular plants 444 55%
Molluscs    
   - Freshwater mussels 6 1%
Spiders 62 8%
Insects    
   - Odonates 22 3%
   - Predaceous diving beetles 2 1%
   - Ground beetles 36 4%
   - Lady beetles 0 0%
   - Bumblebees 1 1%
   - Black flies 0 0%
   - Horse flies 11 1%
   - Mosquitoes 0 0%
   - Selected macromoths 9 1%
   - Butterflies 19 2%
Crustaceans    
   - Crayfishes 0 0%
Amphibians 0 0%
Reptiles 0 0%
Birds 12 1%
Mammals 11 1%
TOTAL 806 100%
Last update: 2011/07/07