Calephelis wrighti

Wright's Metalmark

Wright's metalmark is a butterfly of sandy washes where the larval food plant, sweetbush (Bebbia juncea), grows. It can have more than a spring/summer brood depending on rainfall patterns. For instance, I found a couple of fresh adults on sweetbush, which was doing well, at Rattlesnake Canyon in the Johnson Valley on October 4, 2023, and then saw another on December 25th in Palm Desert. The dark coppery-red ground color of the dorsal side of the wings is uniform, something that sets it apart visually from fatal metalmarks, which have a more banded ground coloration with shades of brown. Fatal metalmarks also are found in washes and riparian habitats, but often this is on the western side of the mountains; Wright's is usually found on the eastern, more arid, side of the mountains. Thus Wright's does well at Anza-Borrego and north in the Coachella Valley region, the Morongo Valley, and parts of Joshua Tree National Park. So it's basically a Colorado desert-edge species. Fatal metalmarks are more coastal. The two species do co-occur rarely, as along the northwest slopes of the Santa Ana Mountains (Anaheim Hills to the south). Fatal metalmarks have a much more extensive range than Wright's metalmarks.