Upperside of female hindwing with row of orange crescents next to row of small back spots. Eggs are laid singly on host flower stalks and hatch the next spring.
Caterpillars eat leaves.
One flight from May-June. Sage scrub, chaparral, foothill woodland, rocky hills and outcrops. Some colonies lost to development and others degraded from effects of exotic grasses and other weeds. G4 - Apparently secure globally, though it might be quite rare in parts of its range, especially at the periphery. Scott, J. A. 1986.