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Melissa blue (Lycaeides melissa)        Images © Mark A. Chappell

These little butterflies were common around flowering buckwheat (Eriogonum) in the San Jacinto Mountains of southern California.   Like many butterflies, they usually perch with the wings tightly folded, making it difficult to get an image of the upper wing surface, but a bit of it can be seen in the upper right image.   This page shows the similar square-spotted blue, which was common in the same habitat.

  • Canon 7D2, Sigma 150 mm f2.8 macro lens, fill-in ringflash (2015)