Family:Hesperiidae
Family
Description:
Alternate Common Name: Western Skipper.
Range:
This species ranges from southern British Columbia and Alberta south through
the western U.S. to southern California and northern Arizona and New Mexico,
from the coast to central Montana, eastern Wyoming, and central Colorado. It
occurs throughout most of Idaho.
Habitat:
It can utilize a wide range of habitats, including marshes,
along streams, woodlands, sagebrush
steppe, chaparral,
gardens, and vacant lots.
Diet:
Caterpillar:
Caterpillars feed on a variety of grasses, such as Bermuda grass (Cynodon
dactylon) and canary grass (Phalaris spp.).
Adult: Butterflies drink flower nectar, often from flowers rarely visited by other butterfly species, such as ox-eye daisy (Chrysanthemum leucanthemum) and everlasting (Antennaria racemosa).
Ecology:
There is one new generation of caterpillars each year through
most of its range; there may be two or more in parts of California. Young caterpillars
overwinter in a physiological state called diapause. In the spring, they emerge
to continue feeding and molting.
They re-enter diapause in the summer, now fully grown, and later they emerge
to pupate. Adults emerge
and fly generarlly
from July to October, mating and laying eggs in the fall; the eggs hatch and
the cycle continues. Caterpillars feeding in large numbers can damage solid
tracts of cultivated grasses, such as golf courses. This skipper is a very common
butterfly, likely due in part to its habitat versatility.
Reproduction:
Males perch
to wait for receptive females. The locations chosen by females to lay eggs have
not been observed or reported.
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.