Family:Hesperiidae
Family
Description:
Alternate Common Name: European Skipperling.
Range:
This skipper occurs in two distinct populations in North America. In the east,
it ranges from southeastern Manitoba to Newfoundland and south to northeastern
Missouri and Tennessee. In the west, it occurs in British Columbia, Idaho, Montana, and Colorado. Its range is continuing to
expand.
Habitat:
It can be found in fields, meadows, pastures, and other grassy
places.
Diet:
Caterpillar:
Caterpillars feed on the leaves of timothy (Phleum pratense) and
other grasses.
Adult: Butterflies drink nectar from short-stemmed flowers such as clover (Trifolium spp.), milkweed (Asclepias spp.), and thistle (Cirsium spp.).
Ecology:
Eggs overwinter and hatch in the spring. There is one generation of caterpillars
each summer. Caterpillars live in nests made of leaves tied with silk. Adults generally
fly from mid-May to
mid-July. Butterflies roost at night in tall grasses; in some areas, the butterflies
have been observed roosting together by the hundreds. A strange and detrimental
behavior of some of the butterflies, reported by one expert, is crawling within
orchid flowers (Cypripedium spp.) in search of nectar. Once inside the
flower, the butterfly is trapped and cannot get out. Interestingly, native skippers
have not been observed behaving similarly. The European Skipper was introduced to Ontario, Canada from
Europe in 1910 and to British Columbia in 1960, and the species has spread considerably
since. Its progressive expansion is believed by experts to be the result of
the inadvertent transport of its eggs through the shipment of hay.
Reproduction:
Males actively patrol
all day among grasses in search of receptive females. Strings of eggs are laid
on the stems of grasses.
Conservation:
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Global Rank: | G5
populations are widespread, abundant, and secure. |
Opler, P. A., H. Pavulaan, and R. E. Stanford. 1995. Butterflies of North America. Jamestown, North Dakota, USA: Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center Home Page. http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/distr/lepid/bflyusa/bflyusa.htm (Version 05Nov98).
Opler, P. A. and A. B.Wright. 1999. A Field Guide to the Western Butterflies. Second Edition. Peterson Field Guide Series. Houghton Mifflin Company, New York, New York, USA, 540 pp.
Pyle, R. M. 1981. National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Butterflies. Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New York, New York, USA, 924 pp.
Scott, J. A. 1986. The Butterflies of North America. Stanford University Press, Stanford, California, USA, 583 pp.
Stanford, R. E. and P. A. Opler. 1993. Atlas of Western U.S.A. Butterflies (Including Adjacent Parts of Canada and Mexico). Published by authors, Denver, Colorado, USA, 275 pp.