© Cathy Cook

Coulson Gulch, Boulder County

Appearance: These small butterflies take their name from the metallic silver-blue bands on the postmedian and submarginal regions of the wings. Above red-orange with black spots; below forewing orange with black spots and hindwing white with black spots and orange submarginal band. Abdomen with black and orange segmentation.

Size: 1- 1¾ inches

Habitat: Foothills through mountain flats and slopes; usually not too far from flowering buckbrush, milkweed, dogbane and snowbush

Season: May to July

Larval Foodplant: Fendler’s Buckbrush

Did You Know...
There are approximately 1000 species of metalmarks worldwide with about 90% in the New World; about 24 in North America (Pyle, 1981). Just two species are found in our region.