Gesta meridianus meridianus

Meridian Duskywing

The range of Gesta meridianus meridianus barely reaches California in the New York Mountains of San Bernardino County (Keystone Canyon, where it was found by Killian Roever, is approx. 12 miles from the Nevada border). It is much better known from Arizona, where it is widespread, and flies from March to October. The type locality is the White Mountains in Arizona. It also flies in southern Nevada, in New Mexico and Texas, and well into Mexico.

Gesta - formerly Erynnis - meridianus meridianus - Meridian Duskywing
I came across Gesta meridianus east of Phoenix at the Boyce Thompson Arboretum on March 25, 2013.
Original taxonomic description of Gesta meridianus meridianus - Meridian Duskywing
E.L. Bell named this butterfly in 1927, in the Journal of the New York Entomological Society, Vol.35, No.3, pp.261ff.

©Dennis Walker