Euphilotes dammersi dammersi

Dammers' Dotted Blue

Euphilotes dammersi dammersi, or Euphilotes enoptes dammersi, is a blue of the low desert that times its autumn flight to the bloom of its host buckwheats. Where I tend to see it - in Riverside County - it uses varieties of Eriogonum wrightii, and flies from roughly late August into October when the plants have flowers for the larvae to feed on. After feeding on the pollen and seeds, the larvae go to the ground to pupate and go into diapause until the cycle begins again.

The type locality is Snow Creek in Riverside County, and it flies in desert environments in western San Bernardino Co., in the Santa Ana Mountains of Orange Co., to the Santa Rosas and through eastern San Diego Co. to Baja. In the remote desert mountains of eastern San Bernardino County it is replaced by subspecies opacapulla.

Euphilotes dammersi dammersi - Dammers' Dotted Blue
This male Euphilotes dammersi dammersi was perched atop Eriogonum wrightii var nodosum on Cactus Spring Trail in Riverside Co. October 6, 2019.
Euphilotes dammersi dammersi - Dammers' Dotted Blue
This female was checking out the flowers of the host Wright's Buckwheat (the nodosum variety) at the same spot as the male above.
Euphilotes dammersi dammersi - Dammers' Dotted Blue
The female ovipositing in the flowers. In a few days, the eggs will hatch and the young larvae can feed on pollen until they are a bit larger; then they turn to the seeds to complete the larval stages.
Euphilotes dammersi dammersi - Dammers' Dotted Blue
A female Dammers' Dotted Blue showing the smudged markings on the ventral forewing. She was ovipositing on the membranaceum variety of Wright's Buckwheat. Cactus Springs Trail in the Santa Rosa Wilderness. September 16, 2007.
Euphilotes enoptes dammersi - Dammers' Dotted Blue
A male Euphilotes dammersi dammersi from the same hike.

©Dennis Walker