Euphilotes mojave mojave

Mojave Blue

Mojave blues are spring flyers in the Mojave and western Colorado deserts that use the small annual buckwheats Eriogonum pusillum and E. reniforme as larval food plants. These tiny blues can often be found in desert washes flying low as they go from plant to plant looking for their low-growing buckwheats. It's easy to lose track of these wispy blues among their wispy plants in bright sandy washes. Caterpillars are cryptic within the yellow flowerheads where they feed. They pupate in the sandy ground, emerging to fly once again early the next spring.