Observation date: June 09, 2014
Submitted by: sgguthart
Specimen type: Photograph
Observation notes: None.
Status: Resident
Verified by: mikefisher
Verified date: March 07, 2018
Coordinator notes: If you examine the fringe on this blue clearly seen in your photograph you can see there are not black checks. The fringe is entirely white. Dotted blues have some black that interrupts the white so it looks checked to one degree or another. Some have very weak checks but on those it is always noticeable at the bottom corner of the forewings and as you can see here it is also entirely white without any black. If you could examine the underside of the individual in your picture you would see metallic blue-green macules at the base of the orange spots. These iridescent scales are always present on "Lupine" Blues but Dotted blue have only plain black dots at the edge of orange marginal spots. I put quotes around "Lupine" because the name is actually a mistake. When it was named a long time ago it was though lupine was the host plant but it has been learned that the Plebejus lupini blues eat only buckwheats (Eriogonum). Mike
