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Photo#67673
Orange With Pattern - Calephelis rawsoni - male

Orange With Pattern - Calephelis rawsoni - Male
Austin - Zilker Park Botanical Gardens, Travis County, Texas, USA
July 29, 2006
Found this guy feeding at the Zilker Park Botanical Gardens. Thank you for ID'ing.

Moved
Moved from Butterflies.

I believe that this is some k
I believe that this is some kind of metalmark butterfly. It's kinda neat, because you can really see the "metal" lines in this picture that give this butterfly it's name.
I was in Zilker Park a month ago and saw one of these. I wonder if he's the same one. : D

 
It is a metalmark
There are four listed for your county:

Fatal Metalmark (Calephelis nemesis)
Mexican Metalmark (Apodemia duryi)
Rawson's Metalmark (Calephelis rawsoni)
Rounded Metalmark (Calephelis nilus)

I'm fairly sure it's not Fatal. Oddly, Butterflies Through Binoculars: The West apparently doesn't show Mexican. To my aging eyes, the other two look too close to yours to call, but I'm no expert.

 
On the Rounded....
...the metallic band in the forewing should have an outward bulge, so I guess that leaves Rawson's.

 
Seems right to me.
I found the Mexican Metalmark online, and it's way different.

 
Re. Mexican Metalmark
BTB West does show duryi, as a subspecies of A. mormo (Mormon Metalmark). I am guessing, by looking at Glassberg's range map, that any Travis Co. records for this species would be strays.

 
Wow, you're thorough
I missed it in the book - was looking for a captioned photo, rather than reading text. (Mine is a used 2001 edition, if that makes a difference.) I got the county records online from what used to be USGS and is now Butterflies and Moths of North America. Based on my county, which is very well documented, I think the online source is a big loose on range.

A lot of this stuff baffles me and/or provokes skepticism. I was on a count where two duskywings were identified as different while in flight, when dissection is the only sure method of differentiation. A friend referred to this as "aerial dissection".

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