Observation date: July 16, 2020
Submitted by: dbrudin
Specimen type: Photograph
Observation notes: None.
Status: Resident
Verified by: mikefisher
Verified date: September 28, 2022
Coordinator notes: This is a flight/rain worn male of the high altitude Melissa Blue...subspecies pseudosamuelis. There is no series of orange spots on the Shasta Blue and in this area (and elsewhere in the Colorado mountains), you would find the Shasta only above timberline. Shasta does occur in North Park outside Walden and on the NW Plateau in Moffat County but it is a difference subspecies (minnehaha) than at high altitude (pitkinensis...platazul is in the Sangre de Cristo Mts.). You should be able to compare Melissa and Shasta on the BAMONA website. Mike
