Euphilotes bernardino bernardino

Bernardino Blue

Bernardino blues are common in southern California, flying in multiple broods along the coast and using the also-common California buckwheat (Eriogonum fasciculatum) as its larval food plant. Nominate bernardino probably flies in every county in southern California. Populations in the eastern Mojave desert and into Arizona and Nevada are subspecies martini (type locality: Oatman, Mohave Co., AZ); to the west of that subspecies, but still in the Mojave, is inyomontana (type locality: south end of the Panamint Range in Inyo Co.). Two undescribed populations worth noting are at Point Loma in San Diego Co. (called "near garthi") and along the coast around Santa Monica; the latter uses Eriogonum cinereum. The Point Loma blue may be single brooded, with a March-April flight.

The type locality of nominate bernardino is Camp Baldy in the San Gabriel Mountains. It's pretty safe to say that wherever in the mountains, deserts, and along the coast one finds California buckwheat, there is a good chance that Bernardino blues are there as well.