Rita's Blue

Euphilotes rita · Order: Lepidoptera · Family: Lycaenidae

Also called: Rita Blue

No source yet on danger. We have no source yet on whether it bites, stings or damages anything.
Rita's Blue
Photo: Roger Rittmaster, CC BY

Rita's blue (Euphilotes rita) is a small Lycaenid butterfly with a wingspan of about 17 to 22 mm. Adults sip nectar from wild buckwheat (Eriogonum) flowers, while the larvae eat the flowers and fruits of the same plants; adults appear from July through late September in a single yearly generation.

Source: Wikipedia

How to recognize it

Euphilotes rita, known as the rita blue or desert buckwheat blue, belongs to the butterfly family Lycaenidae.

Source: Wikipedia

Size

The wingspan ranges from 17 to 22 mm.

Source: Wikipedia

What it eats

Adults feed on the nectar of Eriogonum (wild buckwheat) flowers.

Source: Wikipedia

Life cycle

There is one generation per year, with adults on the wing from July to late September.

Source: Wikipedia

When you see it

Adults are active from July through late September.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it is found in the US

Recorded in 10 of 51 states and DC. Most records: Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Nevada, Utah, California, Montana.

Darker = more records. Counts are museum and citizen-science records, not population size.

Source: GBIF

Status: native in North America; native in United States. Source: iNaturalist

Months it is reported in the US

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Source: GBIF

More photos

Rita's Blue photo 2
Photo: Tom Kennedy, CC BY

Questions people ask

When are adult Rita's blues active?

Adults fly from July until late September.

Source: Wikipedia

Same family (Lycaenidae)

Common BlueCommon BluePolyommatus icarusGray HairstreakGray HairstreakStrymon melinusSmall CopperSmall CopperLycaena phlaeasEastern Tailed-BlueEastern Tailed-BlueEveres comyntasHolly BlueHolly BlueCelastrina argiolusLesser Grass BlueLesser Grass BlueZizina otis

Sources

  • Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphilotes_rita

Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · ITIS · Wikipedia

Text written 2026-10-24 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-24.

How this page works

This is one bug's fact sheet. The colored box at the top says whether it is dangerous. Sections below cover how to recognize it, whether it is a pest, and how to deal with it. The US map shows which states have records; tap a state to see other bugs there.

Every fact on Bug FAQ comes from a named source (university extension sites, government agencies, GBIF, iNaturalist, Wikipedia). The source is linked next to each section. If we have no source for something, we leave it out.