A famous blue butterfly: Still extinct but more distinct
A collections drawer of extinct Xerces blue butterflies at the Field Museum in Chicago. New research suggests the iconic Xerces blue butterfly may have been its own species. The Field Museum via The New York Times.
by Sabrina Imbler
(NYT NEWS SERVICE)
.- More than a century ago, a bluish butterfly flitted among the sand dunes of the Sunset District in San Francisco and laid its eggs on a plant known as deerweed. As the citys development overtook the dunes and deerweed, the butterflies vanished, too. The last Xerces blue butterfly was collected in 1941 from Lobos Creek by an entomologist who would later lament that he had killed what was one of the last living members of the species.