The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation (Xerces Society) is a non-profit environmental organization that focuses on the conservation of invertebrates considered to be essential to biological diversity and ecosystem health. It is named in honor of an extinct California butterfly, the Xerces blue (Glaucopsyche xerces). The organization was founded by butterfly scientist Robert Michael Pyle from Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, and was reincorporated with the Oregon Secretary of State on April 14, 1988.