Lovely native butterflies

Oh, it's the best thing to observe little native butterflies visiting the native patch.

It seems that there are more of them in the latter part of the summer, when a lot of vegetation is drying up.

The butterflies shown here are very small, so you might not notice them very easily, unless you are patiently standing or sitting very still. That's when you'll see the flutter of little wings as the butterflies land on a place in the sun.

The butterfly above is the Acmon Blue Plebejus acmon, perched on a Coastal Sagewort Artemisia pycnocephala plant.

The Acmon Blue's typical habitat is an area of scattered weeds and some bare soil.

Some of its host plants are wild buckwheat, especially the nude buckwheat.

I wonder if the our nude buckwheat, which is the same native patch as the Coastal Sagewort, has been the host plant for the Acmon Blues that I'm seeing in the garden.

Here is the same Acmon Blue, with a great view of its distinctive underwing pattern.

The Common-Checkered Skipper Pyrgus communis is also a frequent visitor in the native patch.

The males usually perch above the ground, and appear blue when in flight.

Several kinds mallow plants are host plants. Since we don't have any mallow plants growing in our garden, the Common-Checkered skippers visiting us definitely were born elsewhere in the neighborhood.