https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/20/world/xerces-blue-butterfly-extinction-scn/index.html

ByAshley Strickland, CNN

Updated 7:02 PM ET, Tue July 20, 2021

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(CNN)As the first North American insect to go extinct due to humans, a blue butterfly has become an icon for insect conservation — and what happens when humans destroy habitats without thought for the creatures living in them.The last of the Xerces blue butterflies fluttered through the air in San Francisco in the early 1940s. Now, they can only be seen in glass displays at museums.These periwinkle pearly-winged insects lived in the coastal sand dunes along San Francisco and were first characterized by scientists in 1852. When urban development swept through this part of California, the sandy soils were…