Calephelis freemani McAlpine

Freeman’s Metalmark (Calephelis freemani 

Freeman’s Metalmark lived in the Davis Mountains in western Texas. The adult butterflies reached a wingspan of 2 to 2,9 cm, their caterpillars obviously fed on the leaves of the Havana Snakeroot (Ageratina havanensis (Kunth) R. M. King & H. Robinson).  

The species was last found in the year 1951 and is considered possibly extinct.  

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Freeman’s Metalmark is very similar to Rawson’s Metalmark (Calephelis rawsoni McAlpine) (see photograph), and both species are often treated as conspecific.  

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Rawson’s Metalmark (Calephelis rawsoni)  

Photo: Nick Block  

(under creative commons license (4.0)) 
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0 

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edited: 18.03.2017