Callophrys mossii
species of insect
Callophrys mossii, commonly known as Moss's elfin, stonecrop elfin or Schryver's elfin, is a species of butterfly native to North America in the family Lycaenidae. It is found from British Columbia south to southern California and east to Wyoming and Colorado in isolated populations. The habitat consists of rocky outcrops, woody canyons and cliffs.
The wingspan is 22–28 mm. Adults are on wing from March to June in one generation per year.
The larvae feed on Sedum (including S. spathulifolium and S. lanceolatum), Sedella, Dudleya and Parvisedum species.
Subspecies
Listed alphabetically:
C. m. bayensis (Brown, 1939) – San Bruno elfin (California)
C. m. doudoroffi dos Passos, 1940 (California)
C. m. hidakupa Emmel, Emmel & Mattoon, 1998 (California)
C. m.
“Callophrys mossii” enters the record as species of insect. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Callophrys, mossii and species can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Callophrys mossii” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Callophrys, mossii and species provides the most credible route into that argument.
The date and method of observation matter as much as the stated conclusion, especially where classification or consensus has changed. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 23, 2024. The linked authority identifier is Q18324968. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1939, 1940 and 1998.
Scientific names, classifications and consensus can change while older terminology persists in catalogues and historical literature. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Callophrys mossii” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.