Identification: Upperside of male dull red- brown, female tawny; both with dark brown costa and wing borders. Underside of forewing rust-red; hindwing dull to bright green with irregular white line edged inwardly with red-brown. Life history: To seek females, males perch on host trees all day. Eggs are laid singly on tips of host plant leaves, which the caterpillars eat. Chrysalids hibernate. During the afternoon, males perch on hilltops or on low vegetation if there are no hills. Females lay eggs singly on the top of host plant leaves. Caterpillars are solitary, living and feeding in a nest of leaves tied with silk. Adults hibernate. Flight: In the north, one brood from May-August; in the west, one brood from March-July. Two broods in the south from February-September. Caterpillar hosts: Redcedar: (Juniperus virginiana), and (J. scopulorum), California juniper (J. californica), Utah juniper (J. osteosperma), and perhaps others. Adult food: Nectar from various flowers including winter cress, dogbane, common milkweed, wild carrot, shepherd's needle, butterflyweed, white sweet clover, and others. Habitat: Old fields, bluffs, barrens, juniper and pinyon-juniper woodlands, and cedar breaks.
Range: East: New England west to Nebraska, south to Florida and Texas. West: Montana, North Dakota, and Nebraska south to southern California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Baja California.
Conservation: Subspecies sweadneri is of conservation concern wherever it is found. Callophrys gryneus as a whole has The Nature Conservancy Global Rank of G5 - Demonstrably secure globally. Management needs: Maintain habitat of subspecies sweadneri and manage for the proper successional stage.*