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Most likely to be confused with the Rocky Mountain Dotted Blue (Euphilotes ancilla), but Acmon has shiny, metallic scales on the hindwing marginal band which are absent in ancilla. Acmon also has smaller underside spots and a white, even uncheckered wing fringe. A number of different subspecies have been assigned to our populations (Layberry et al, 1998, Guppy & Shepard 2001), But Norbert Kondla remarks that "Alberta Butterflies" purposely did not assign a subspecies because Alberta populations do not look like others, so it is best to not use a subspecies name until this matter is resolved. Balint & Johnson (1997) and Gorbunov (2001) provide alternative interpretations of the generic placement of acmon. To add to the taxonomic confusion of this group, Scott (1998) provides evidence that our populations are actually lupini (Boisduval), not acmon; So the butterfly known as Icaricia acmon as recently as 1998 may eventually be referred to as Aricia lupini!

There are no data available on immature stages for Canadian populations. Guppy & Shepard (2001) figure a mature larva from California and a pupa from Mexico; the larva is dark green, covered in short fine hair, with a pinkish red dorsal and lateral line. The pupa is light brown. Field-collected larvae can have high parasitism rates by tachinid flies in BC (Guppy & Shepard 2001).