Sonoran Blue

Many populations of Philotes sonorensis have been documented throughout California and Baja California, showing that the butterflies are restricted to habitat areas deemed suitable for their needs. In California, this species has been recorded in Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, Santa Barbara, and other counties meeting their habitat requirements. In Baja California, P. sonorensis has been documented along the Sierra Juárez mountain range.

An experiment took place in the San Gabriel Canyon of southern California to investigate movement behavior of Philotes sonorensis. The species was captured and marked to determine whether they would return to the original capture locations or randomly disperse. Butterflies that were removed from close habitats did return to the site of their capture at greater rates than hypothesized. It was suggested that Philotes sonorensis is a more sedentary species that behaves in correlation to local habitat characteristics (site fidelity).