Observation date: March 04, 2014
Submitted by: Robert Gorman
Specimen type: Photograph
Observation notes: been looking for the moss elfin, don't know if its around here. but i read that it uses the same food plant as the sonoran blue? This elfin loved black sage along with a painted lady, bramble and dusky's 65 time of photo's partly cloudy. wet after heavy scattered rains. some areas got hammered los angles got up to 15 inches in five days the local orange co mountains got 5-6 inches max, most areas got 1- 1.5 it sure helped though lots of blooms quickly. this insect was sipping inside flowers with whole head inside, and also looked to be getting nectar from all over the out side of buds. it was hard to chase away it was very tolerant of me pestering it, it would rub hind wings together as lots of butterflies do. and flick its wings and finally fly to the next bush.
Status: Resident
Verified by: Ken Davenport
Verified date: March 06, 2014
Coordinator notes: This is subspecies iroides. Moss Elfins are not in your area. A few have been found in Los Angeles County. Adults are almost never seen.
