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 all black with white spots. They looked like tiny Admirals from a distance.

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 virgulti dialeucoides, which I hope to photograph soon.)

Ventral of Apodemia mormo nr mormo.

One more ventral of Apodemia mormo nr mormo.