Euphilotes bernardino martini
Martin's Blue
Euphilotes bernardino martini flies in the Mojave desert in the Mojave National Preserve, north into Inyo County, and east into Nevada and Arizona where its host, Eriogonum fasciculatum, grows. Among the characters that make it distinct are the small size of adults and the wide orange aurora on the hind wings. I found it in the Kingston Range, where it was easily seen in stands of the host California buckwheat.
Euphilotes bernardino martini uses Eriogonum fasciculatum in the Mojave desert. The wide orange aurora is a feature of this subspecies, which was described by Rudi Mattoni in 1954.
This one has a particularly wide aurora. All of these photos were taken in the Kingston Range, May 1, 2020.
These are found very near the host buckwheat.
On the host. One last shot.
Here is Mattoni's description of martini, excerted from an article on the genus Philotes in the Bulletin of the Southern California Academy of Sciences, published in 1954.
©Dennis Walker
