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Species Callophrys augustinus - Brown Elfin - Hodges#4322

California Hairstreak? - Callophrys augustinus - female Callophrys augustinus Brown Elfin for California in March - Callophrys augustinus Brown Elfin - Callophrys augustinus Brown Elfin egg - Callophrys augustinus Brown Elfin larva Day 2 - Callophrys augustinus Brown Elfin - Callophrys augustinus Brown Elfin - Callophrys augustinus
Show images of: caterpillars · adults · both
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Lepidoptera (Butterflies and Moths)
Superfamily Papilionoidea (Butterflies and Skippers)
Family Lycaenidae (Blues, Coppers, Hairstreaks, Harvesters)
Subfamily Theclinae (Hairstreaks)
Tribe Eumaeini
Genus Callophrys
Species augustinus (Brown Elfin - Hodges#4322)
Hodges Number
4322
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
Thecla augustinus Westwood, 1852
Incisalia augustinus (Westwood) 1852
Explanation of Names
Named after a Canadian Inuit who was called Augustus by the members of the nineteenth-century John Franklin expedition. John Richardson, the naturalist on the Franklin Arctic Expedition. honoured Augustus for his devoted duty to the expedition members (The entomologist William Kirby wrote the actual description)
The name chosen, Thecla augustus, had unfortunately already been used to describe another butterfly, so John Obadiah Westwood proposed a slightly modified version, Thecla augustinus, which became the official original name for the species.
Numbers
Locally common; the most often encountered elfin in most of its range
Size
Wingspan 19-29 mm
Identification
Adult: Has no tails. Upperside of male grayish-brown; female more reddish-brown. Underside of forewing chestnut brown with dark irregular postmedian line. Underside of hindwing sharply divided between dark brown basal half and light chestnut brown distal half.

Larva: olive green to yellow green, with a yellow line down the back, and oblique lines on the sides.
Range
Much of North America, north to Alaska and Newfoundland. Absent from Great Plains, midwest.
Habitat
Varied: barrens, bogs, mixed coniferous/deciduous woodlands; almost any place where acidic soils predominate and the larval foodplants occur.
Season
Adults from May-July (north); February-April (south)
Food
Larvae feed on flowers, fruits, and leaves of wide variety of plants, mainly Ericaceae, including blueberry (Vaccinium spp.), Manzanitas (Arctostaphylos spp.), Leatherleaf (Chamaedaphne calyculata), Labrador Tea (Ledum groenlandicum), madrone (Arbutus menziesii, and salal (Gaultheria shallon). In California, it also uses(1) soap plant (Chlorogalum pomeridianum), California lilac (Ceanothus spp.), and even the parasitic vine dodder (Cuscuta spp.).
Adults take nectar.
Remarks
Often flies in company with other elfins, and likes to sip moisture from wet sand and earth.
See Also
Moss's Elfin and Hoary Elfin have some hoary gray shading in the pale outer half of the hindwing below.
Print References
Glassberg(2)
Brock and Kaufman(3)
Scott(4)
Internet References
Butterflies of Canada pinned adult image, subspecies, description, origin of specific epithet, flight season, biology, distribution, similar species, remarks
Fauna Boreali-Americana, v.4, p.298    William Kirby's original description of the species
Genera of Diurnal Lepidoptera, v.2, p.486 (no.104)    Westwood's proposal of the replacement name
Works Cited
1.Field Guide to Butterflies of the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento Valley Regions
Arthur M. Shapiro and Tim Manolis. 2007. University of California Press.
2.Butterflies Through Binoculars: The West : A Field Guide to the Butterflies of Western North America (Butterflies and Others Thr
Jeffrey Glassberg. 2001. Oxford University Press.
3.Butterflies of North America (Kaufman Focus Guides)
Jim P. Brock, Kenn Kaufman. 2003. Houghton Mifflin Co.
4.The Butterflies of North America
James A. Scott. 1986. Stanford University Press.