The insect, the Xerces blue butterfly, died out in the mid-20th century as a result of pronounced habitat loss, according to the Florida Museum of Natural History.

The Xerces blue, or Glaucopsyche xerces, was native to the San Francisco Peninsula in California. The name actually only referenced male butterflies, since the front of their iridescent wings had ...

“The Xerces blue butterfly was the first insect in the United States that was documented to be driven to extinction by human activities,” said Corrie Moreau, director of the Cornell University ...

The last Xerces blue butterfly was collected in 1941 from Lobos Creek by an entomologist who would later lament that he had killed what was one of the last living members of the species.

The Xerces Blue butterfly (Glaucopsyche xerces) was native to the coastal dunes of San Francisco, in the United States. As the city grew, much of the butterfly’s habitat was destroyed and its ...

The Xerces blue in particular was always popular with naturalists, who captured the brilliant blue insects for their personal collections. But “today, the Florida Museum of Natural History’s McGuire ...

(CN) — The Xerces blue butterfly was last seen in the early 1940s in San Francisco. The small, iridescent blue insect, originally discovered in 1852, was endemic to and once plentiful among the ...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — More than 80 years ago, a beautiful butterfly called Xerces Blue that once fluttered among San Francisco's coastal dunes went extinct as stately homes, museums and parks ate ...

In 1943, the gossamer-winged Xerces blue butterfly disappeared from San Francisco as housing, parks and museums completely wiped out its habitat in what is now the Richmond and the Sunset.

The Xerces blue — named after two ancient rulers of the Persian Empire, Xerxes I and Xerxes II — was once relatively common in a small range in the coastal sand dunes of the upper San Francisco ...

SAN FRANCISCO — More than 80 years ago, a beautiful butterfly called Xerces Blue that once fluttered among San Francisco's coastal dunes went extinct as stately homes, museums and parks ate up ...