Apodemia mormo langei
| Lange's metalmark butterfly | |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Lepidoptera |
| Family: | Riodinidae |
| Genus: | Apodemia |
| Species: | A. mormo |
| Subspecies: | A. m. langei |
| Trinomial name | |
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Apodemia mormo langei Comstock, 1938 |
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Apodemia mormo langei, the Lange's metalmark butterfly, is an endangered North American butterfly. It is a subspecies of the Mormon metalmark and belongs to the family Riodinidae. The butterfly is endemic to California, where it is known from one strip of riverbank in the San Francisco Bay Area. A 2008 count estimated the total remaining population at 131 individuals. Since 2011, this number has dropped to about 25–30.
Lange's metalmark is a fragile, brightly colored butterfly in the Riodinidae (metalmark) family. Adult wingspan varies from 1-inch (25 mm) to 1.5-inch (38 mm). Dorsal wings are largely black with white spots. Red-orange coloration extends through the inner forward half of the forewing, the hindwing bases, and a small central patch subtended by black. Below, the wings have a more muted pattern of gray, white, black, and orange.
The butterfly has been classified in the United States as a federal endangered species (Federal Register 41:22044; June 1, 1976).
Lange’s metalmark butterfly was historically restricted to sand dunes along the southern bank of the Sacramento River, and is currently found only at Antioch Sand Dunes (a misnomer, as the sand was long ago removed and the landscape is now hilly scrub) in Contra Costa County, California. Most of the habitat is now part of the Antioch Dunes National Wildlife Refuge, administered by the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge Complex. Recent population counts have ranged from several hundred to more than a thousand individuals. While the Antioch Dunes Recovery Plan of April 25, 1984, has been put under action, no critical habitat has been designated as yet.
In the early 1900s, the isolated dune habitat in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta began to experience a dramatic change as human development expanded. The easily accessible sand was harvested to make bricks. Large-scale sand mining and industrial development fragmented the sand dune habitat until only a small portion of the original ecosystem remained. Nonnative grasses and other vegetation encroached on the sand dunes to crowd the few remaining endangered plants. By the time the Antioch Dunes Refuge was established, only a few acres of remnant dune habitat supported the last natural populations of Antioch Dunes evening primrose (Oenothera deltoides ssp. howellii), Contra Costa wallflower (Erysimum capitatum var. angustatum) and Lange's metalmark.
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