JUNE BUGS: The Xerces Blue Butterfly on Day 175 of 365 Days of Literacy for Kids!

Let’s have a little fun, a little learning and a little YIKES! today with the XERCES BLUE BUTTERFLY (pronounced Zer-seas):

The Xerces Blue Butterfly

Sadly, the beautiful Xerces Blue Butterfly is eXtinct.  X-ed off the planet. (This is a YIKES that’s unimaginable.)

Perhaps more sadly,  the Xerces Blue Butterfly is the first butterfly in North America to have become extinct at the hands of human beings.  Scientists believe the Xerces Blue Butterfly became extinct in the early 1940’s due to loss of habitat caused by urban development and environmental changes.

The Xerces Blue Butterfly was once common to the coastal sand dunes of San Fransisco’s peninsula. The species was first described and documented in 1852… characterized by its blue wings with white spots.

French Entomologist Jean Baptiste Boisduval (1799 – 1879) named the butterfly for King Xerxes, who reigned as King of Persia from 486 – 465 BC.

The Xerces Blue Butterfly was a small butterfly with iridescent silvery-blue-violet upper wing surfaces in the male and darker-blue-brownish colors in the female.  It enjoyed low-growing vegetation and the female laid eggs on Lotus and Lupine such as Deerweed and Yellow-flowering Beach Lupine.

The Xerces Blue Butterfly was last observed in the wild in the early 1940s.

Introduce your kids and grandkids to the Xerces Blue Butterfly.  Talk about what it means to be extinct… and what we can do to prevent this tragedy from happening to other creatures.

Tell your kids of the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, founded in 1971 and named for the Xerces Blue Butterfly.  Xerces Society collaborates on projects to protect what it calls “the neglected majority” of animals “without backbones that constitute more that 95% of the world’s critters.”

Think about this.  95% of the world’s creatures are invertebrate, and they need protection. Conservation is crucial to share with our kids.  It is everyone’s concern.

Join me here each day for JUNE BUGS on 365 Days of Literacy for Kids! – a little fun, a little learning, a little YIKES!

 

 

About Audrey

Audrey McClelland has been a digital influencer since 2005. She’s a mom of 5 and shares tips on her three favorite things: parenting, fashion and beauty. She’s also a Contemporary Romance Author.

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