Red-bordered Metalmark
Caria ino
Description 3/4-1" (19-25 mm). Male above dark blackish-brown, sometimes with greenish bar along costa; both wings have wide, deep rust to maroon borders; below brick-red, darker along margin, peppered with iridescent steel-blue spots. Female above grayish-brown, marked with duskier squares and rust borders; below, orange-brown with conspicuous silver or steel-blue spots.
Similar Species Female resembles Calephelis metalmarks but has steel-colored spots all over wings below (Calephelis have only 2 marginal rows of spots).
Life Cycle Host plant is hackberry (Celtis pallida). Caterpillar spins silken shelter and later pupates in it.
Flight Continuous broods; year-round except January and February northward.
Habitat Thickets and thorn forests.
Range Yucatan and Oaxaca, Mexico, north to S. Texas.
Discussion The Red-bordered Metalmark inhabits thorn forests in a somewhat patchy arc from southern Texas south to the Yucatan, Mexico, as well as a separate region in western Mexico.
Source
