Systasea zampa

Arizona Powdered Skipper

I haven't seen this species many times in southern California, but it does fly here early and (depending on precipitation) later in the year, as my dates below attest. It does show up sometimes at Cactus Spring Trail in Riverside County, and can be found in San Bernardino Co. at Joshua Tree NP and in the Mojave Preserve. A good place to see this exotic-looking skipper is in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park (such as Plum Canyon and Hell Canyon). I've found larvae on Abutilon palmeri in Palm Desert at the outer fringe of a nursery, and it is also said to use species of Hibiscus and Horsfordia. All of these are mallows, none of which are at Cactus Spring Trail. Another mallow, Malacothamnus fascicularis, grows along Cactus Spring Trail (especially in an area that burned recently), so that's possible. Does it use the very common Sphaeralcea ambigua there? In our Joshua Tree book, Gordon wrote that it "is believed that caterpillars can be found occasionally" on that plant.