Photos: Diane Edwardson, September 8, 2011, 8:30 AM. While shooting first time photos of native Dove Weed on the Red Car Property, I watched a tiny blue silver butterfly with black dots feeding off the Dove Weed flowers. Again, this is another first as I've never seen such a blue butterfly in the area. The butterfly was about the size of my fingernail. So the quality of the enlargements is poor.
If you enlarge this photo, you can see the tiny butterfly (enlarged below) sitting on a weed adjacent to the Native Dove Weed above the historic viaduct footings. (Click on photo to enlarge.)
Enlarged from the photo above, you can get an idea of the detail that could not be seen with the naked eye. There is a lack of easy-to-use, Los Angeles-specific info on butterflies, so I checked UC Irvine's "Butterflies of Orange County." It shows a number of blue butterflies.
UCI also has a useful photo-illustrated list of "Butterflies and Their Larval Food Plants."
People always want to find an endangered species on the Red Car Property. I have no idea if this is a rare species. I've never see it before and I have spent a lot of time shooting close-ups of the plants and bugs of the Red Car Property, Menlo Property, 18-Acre Elysian Park Parcel and Semi Tropic Spiritualists' Tract.
If you can help ID this butterfly species, send us an email with links to information: redcarproperty@gmail.com.
