Five Endangered Butterflies: Lange's Metalmark

Lange's Metalmark
This is the third of five posts about my endangered butterfly linoleum prints

The Lange's metalmark is the only member of the family Riodinidae on the endangered species list. It lives on about 50 acres of heavily mined sand dunes south of the San Joaquin River. Antioch Dunes National Wildlife Refuge was the first national wildlife refuge in the country established to protect endangered plants and insects. The Lange’s habitat has been industrialized since the 1930s, but the butterfly was only recently recognized as endangered.

The population had been declining since 1999 to a low of just 158 in 2006. It has been slowly climbing back to 209 in 2007 and 367 in 2008 due to conservation efforts. It lays its eggs on naked buckwheat. The plant's seedlings require open sand to become established. Of all the states, California has the most endangered butterflies.

This print was made from two color blocks and is printed on Rives Lightweight Paper, 115gsm.




Photo credit: "Antioch Dunes" by jwdmeow on Flickr


Special thanks to Louis Terrazas, for use of his images, all of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Wildlife Refuge Specialists at Antioch Dunes, and Urban Wildlands for conserving this endangered butterfly and its fragile habitat.

Five Endangered Butterflies: Uncompahgre Fritillary

Uncompahgre Fritillary
This is the second of five posts about my endangered butterfly linoleum prints

The Uncompahgre Fritillary is in the family Nymphalidae – The name of this butterfly comes from one of the nomadic groups of the Ute Indians that once traveled in what is now eastern Utah, western Colorado and parts of New Mexico and Wyoming. Uncompahgre fritillary lives on two 14,000ft peaks in the San Juan Mountains, Colorado: Uncomphagre and Red Cloud peaks. Its caterpillars eat snow willow, which is a miniature, alpine version of our tall willow trees. This print is made from two color blocks.





Alpine ecosystems are fragile – the species are isolated much like island species, and they are adapted to the temperature, moisture and altitude. Increases in average temperature are major concern for alpine and montane species; as temperatures warm, the subalpine zone marches up the mountain, decreasing the surface area available until it is gone.

Photo credit: Trail up Uncompahgre Peak by Jessi Varner on Flickr


Special thanks to the amazing photographer Bill Bouton for the use of his butterfly photo, and to Dr. Paul Opler for his gracious advice.

Five Endangered Butterflies: Mission Blue

The Five Endangered Butterfly prints tell the stories of the butterflies, and represent similar stories of imperiled butterflies across the globe. Each image contains three aspects of the butterfly’s life history: The butterfly in adult form, the geography of the region in which it currently lives, and the particular host plant(s) that the females lay their eggs on for the caterpillars to consume. Most butterfly species depend on a very narrow diet for the caterpillars, and the landscape provides the habitat for the ecosystem. In the case of endangered butterflies, the ecology and life history are so interdependent that human impacts are often the cause of their peril.

There are 17 federally listed endangered butterflies from five taxonomic families in the US. The “family” is the level of classification above the genus and species of an organism. These five endangered butterfly prints are representatives of the five families of butterflies. They are all linoleum relief prints on Rives Lightweight Paper, 115gsm.


The Endangered Butterfly print project began with the Mission Blue. Daniel Dancer, a conceptual artist asked me to create a t-shirt design for an “Art for the Sky” collaboration at Presidio Middle School in San Francisco, CA. (Aerial photo credit: Michael Maloney, SF Chronicle.) After completing the commission for Daniel, I felt like the Mission Blue's story was only part of the message I wanted to send out. So, I created a series of prints that represent butterflies of the five families.

THE MISSION BLUE STORY:

Mission Blue belongs to the family Lycaenidae— Eight of the seventeen federally listed butterflies belong to Lycaenidae, or the “gossamer wings.” The subfamily of “blues” are generally small, delicate butterflies that use legumes as host plants. The largest population of mission blues live in the San Bruno Mountains near San Francisco. Other small populations exist in other locations in Marin, San Mateo and San Francisco counties. The topographic lines in the background of the print represent the coastal San Bruno Mountains. The females lay their eggs on silverleaf lupine, which is on either side of the butterfly. This image was made from three color blocks.

This is the first of five blogs describing the Five Endangered Butterflies series. These prints are available for sale as a set of five, only, and are not sold separately.