Apodemia mormo are the widest ranging North American species of the family Riodinidae, with  populations widely distributed throughout western North America, and peripheral colonies located in Canada and Mexico.
    They are found at elevations from sea level to 7000', in areas that support a high density of their larval host plant (various species of buckwheat (Eriogonum).)
    (Canadian populations are listed with conservation statuses of “endangered” and “threatened”, respectively.)
    Their flight is very distinctive as they wheel in circles and often do figure-eights, making them very difficult to track visually,
   They are very "nervous" on flowers, keeping the wings in constant motion as they take nectar.
    Mating occurs approximately three days into the adult's life when females seek out males, who wait, perched in hillside hollows, for their arrival.

   Mature butterflies live between nine and twelve days, with females having a slightly longer lifespan than males.

    Dorsal wings are largely black with white spots.        Red orange coloration extends through the inner forward half of the forewing, the hindwing bases, and a small central patch subtended by black.             Below, the wings have a more muted pattern of gray, white, black, and orange.

     Females are significantly larger than males, with much broader wings.

   Unlike many butterfly species that have several generations per year, Mormon Metalmarks have only one.

   They are seen on wing from July - September in the north, and March - October in the south.

   They have been classified in the United States as a federally endangered species (Federal Register 41:22044; June 1, 1976).

   * A nonprofit environmental group has been breeding butterflies in captivity since 2007 and periodically releasing larvae and adults back into the wild as insurance against a collapse of the remaining wild population.