Size: Up to 0.85 inch wingspan

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Key ID features:  Small.  Male blue above with dark wing borders. Female dark brown above with vague orange zigzag along trailing margin. Both sexes have checked fringe on FW. Below bluish-gray with black spots, and orange edges to submarginal black spots on HW.

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Similar species: Euphilotes blues are often best told apart by host-plant association, location and flight period. Several other species have orange bands on the ventral hindwing, instead of separate orange spots.  In the western Cascades, only this species has separate orange spots.

 

Host plant: Eriogonum nudum (bare-stem buckwheat), E. elatum (tall woolly buckwheat) and E. compositum (arrowleaf buckwheat).

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Habitat: Well-drained sites where hostplant grows, including high plateaus, ridges, gravelly slopes and roadsides. ​

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Range: Western Cascade Range, Siskiyou Mtns, Klamath Mtns.

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Season: Mid-April to early August

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Abundance: Common

 

Conservation Status: Secure