Upperside of male blue, female brown with blue at wing base. Males patrol and perch during the day. Females lay eggs on flowers or young seedpods of host plant.
Caterpillars eat young seeds inside the pod, where they overwinter and pupate.
Several broods in southern California, a partial second brood in the southern Rocky Mountains, and one brood elsewhere. G5 - Demonstrably secure globally, though it may be quite rare in parts of its range, especially at the periphery. Opler, P. A. and G. O. Krizek. Butterflies east of the Great Plains. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.