Identification
This has been listed a subspecies of both E. chalcedona and E. anicia. Based on male genitalia, it is usually kept with E. anicia when that species is separated as distinct from E. chalcedona (the whole group is sometimes lumped together as if one species). However, subspecies bernadetta and other similar populations occur right alongside other more orange subspecies of E. anicia in some areas, and behave as a distinct and different entity, with "black and white" types like ssp. "bernadetta" usually starting flight earlier in the season in any given area than "orange" types and remaining distinctly different.
Specimens of subspecies bernadetta are rather dark, have reduced red coloring, and tend to look rather black and white, much as in inland populations of E. chalcedona, which occur further west, and with they perhaps blend where they meet. Regardless of the anicia-like genitalia, it seems likely that these populations really belong to E. chalcedona.
There are several other names that apply to similar populations further west (some sometimes considered to be the same as ssp. bernadetta before they were named), and that seem to relate to E. chalcedona and [i]E. anicia in the same way. One is [i]E. "anicia" ssp. veaziae.
