Observation date: July 21, 2022
Submitted by: madamirie
Specimen type: Photograph
Observation notes: nectaring on California buckwheat, hot very windy day, stems kept blowing in the wind, very low to the ground
Status: Unknown
Verified by: Ken Davenport
Verified date: July 22, 2022
Coordinator notes: I am accepting this as an Acmon Blue because of the date but with reservations. The Lupine Blue complex (Plebejus monticola (elevated to a species different than lupini) occurs in the Santa Lucia's (Carmel Rd. not far from road to Chews Ridge) on California Buckwheat and your female is boldly spotted like one of those, so I can't rule out that possibility. The Monterey County ones (common on the Parkfield Grade in a wetter year than this one) is boldly marked and an unnamed subspecies. It would take actual specimens to verify what you have, or else a series of both sexes. Until the 1990's it was believed no member of the Lupine Blue complex occurred north of Santa Barbara County. My searches turned them up as being extremely common in May and early June in interior SLO, Monterey and Fresno Counties in the Coast Ranges and it is now know from Pinnacles NM in San Benito Co. as well-Ken Davenport
