While walking up a beautiful, open, rocky, gulch, in an area in good flower...I'd been noticing for many minutes what I thought were little black diurnal moths fluttering in extremely erratic high-speed spurts. At last I saw this one land. I'm not sure if this was the same as those "moths", but this looked like a Mormon Metalmark when I got close.

Checking various references, this one corresponds to what Scott(1) called Apodemia mormo ssp. deserti ("from the Mojave", which fits), to what the Monroe's(2) called A. mejicanus deserti (= A. mormo deserti), and to what Glassberg(3) showed as A. mormo mormo (Glassberg listed no deserti, and his A. mejicanus has (WAY!) too much orange on upper hind- and fore-wings to match this one...or those shown in the other references).

Checking the Butterflies of North America web site, the type images of A. mormo deserti looked like a very good match, as did the other images there of A. mejicanus deserti, which is given as the recognized name, with A. mormo deserti a synonym.

The BugGuide info page indicates there is no clear consensus yet on whether A. mormo deserti or A. mejicanus deserti should be the officially recognized name for this butterfly. But whatever people call it, it was a little beauty.