Apodemia mormo nr mormo

Mormon Metalmark

In the vicinity of Wildhorse Meadow and Onyx Peak, southeast of Big Bear Lake, there is a very dark mormo around patches of Wright's buckwheat, Eriogonum wrightii var. subscaposum. It flies in a single brood around September. This area appears to be one end of a large cline with, perhaps, the very bright mormo cythera (or tuolumnensis) populations at the other end, and a large blend zone with a mix of phenotypes in between. According to John Emmel (via email in 2017), from the mountains of Santa Barbara to around Van Dusen Canyon is a fall-flying mormo he called "near tuolumnensis, for want of a better name." He continued: "Just east of Van Dusen Canyon you get into a large blend zone with A. mormo near mormo. On the slope NW of Baldwin Lake you can collect a broad range of phenotypes. Here it is associated with Eriogonum fasciculatum as well as E. wrightii. There is Eriogonum kennedyi in the area also and likely this is used as well." In the landmark "Three Biotypes" paper by Gordon Pratt and Greg Ballmer, however, the authors have cythera and mormo north of the San Gabriels and San Bernardinos, with cythera continuing north to the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada. To the east, in the desert mountains (Little San Bernardinos, Old Woman, New York, Providence, Hackberry, and Westgard pass) we have the mormo mormo phenotype; up at Hunter Mountain, the Cosos, and Inyos, it is cythera. As with the 2011 American Butterflies treatment, tuolumnensis is absent. So, the blend zone north and east of Baldwin Lake would be between dark mormo mormo and golden mormo cythera, with the lighter cythera phenotype extending northwest through Frazier Park and beyond to Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.

Apodemia mormo nr mormo - Mormon Metalmark
This striking mormo from the Wildhorse Canyon area of the San Bernardinos is Apodemia mormo near mormo. I took all these photos on Sept. 11, 2007. Some - like this one - were almost completely lacking in orange, and so were almost black with white spots. They looked like tiny admirals from a distance.
Apodemia mormo nr mormo - Mormon Metalmark
This mormon metalmark uses E. wrightii var subscaposum. Remarkably, an almost identical mormo-complex metalmark uses wrightii as well in the same general area but flies a few months earlier in the year. They were long thought to be two broods of the same butterfly. (The earlier flyer is Apodemia dialeuca dialeucoides.)
Apodemia mormo nr mormo - Mormon Metalmark
Ventral of Apodemia mormo nr mormo.
Apodemia mormo nr mormo - Mormon Metalmark
One more ventral of Apodemia mormo nr mormo.
Apodemia mormo from Holcolm Valley
Apodemia mormo from the Holcolm Valley area (east of Van Dusen) of the San Bernardino Mountains. September 6, 2007.
Apodemia mormo from Holcolm Valley
A different one, on the same hike.
Apodemia mormo from Holcolm Valley
This one is from the same spot, but on August 23, 2005. This phenotype - a male? - has the larger white macules as seen in the mormo to the southeast.

©Dennis Walker