Peck's Skipper Butterfly - Polites peckius
Order Lepidoptera / Suborder Macrolepidoptera/ Superfamily Hesperioidea / Family Hesperiidae -- skippers
Genus Polites Scudder / Species Polites coras (Cramer) -- Peck's skipper
Commonly called "Yellowpatch skipper"

 

Peck's Skipper
Peck's Skipper on Common Thistle

Identification: Upperside of male is brown with reddish-orange patches; forewing has a sinuous stigma. Female is darker with no stigma. Underside of the hindwing of both sexes has a patch of large yellow spots in the center surrounded by dark brown.

Life history: Males perch in sunny open areas to await receptive females, and courtship takes place throughout the day. Females lay eggs singly; caterpillars eat leaves and live in leaf shelters. Caterpillars and chrysalids hibernate.

Flight: Two to three broods from May-October.

Wing span: 1 - 1 1/4 inches (2.5 - 3.2 cm).

Caterpillar hosts: Rice cutgrass (Leersia oryzoides); probably bluegrass (Poa pratensis) and others.

Adult food: Nectar from flowers including red clover, purple vetch, thistles, selfheal, New York ironweed, blue vervain, common milkweed, swamp milkweed, dogbane, and New Jersey tea.

Habitat: Many open grassy habitats including meadows, prairies, lawns, marshes, landfills, roadsides, vacant lots, and power line right-of-ways.

Range: British Columbia east across southern Canada to Nova Scotia; south to northeastern Oregon, southern Colorado, northwest Arkansas, and northern Georgia.

NatureServe Global Status: G5 - Demonstrably secure globally. [1]

 

 

 

 

All adult true skippers have six well developed legs. Their eggs are tiny, usually less than .1mm. Most skipper caterpillars are green and tapered, and the neck appears constricted. The caterpillars weave silk and leaves into a daytime shelter for protection. Most pupate in loosely woven cocoons. The chrysalises are often coated with a powder or bloom. Chrysalis and caterpillars may overwinter.

Skipper butterflies can be divided into five subfamilies:

  • Pyrginae, or spread-wing skippers. These butterflies bask with their wings spread open flat, although there are a few that sit with the wings folded over their back. The cloudy wings sit with their wings partly open. Most spreadwings are patterned in gray, black and white. Caterpillars feed on many different types of plants, especially legumes.
  • Grass Skippers, subfamily Hesperiinae constitute the largest grouping, and perhaps the most challenging for those seeking to identify specimens. They are smaller than the spread-wing skippers, and many are patterned with yellow, orange and black. These erratic flyers sit with their forewings and hind wings at different angles - I think the configuration resembles an F-15 Eagle fighter jet. Grass skipper larvae feed mostly on ... guess what? Yep. Grasses.
  • Giant Skippers, subfamily Megathyminae includes the largest skippers. These are rare butterflies, even where there host plants, the Agaves and Yuccas are common. They are very fast and powerful flyers.
  • Skipperlings, subfamily Heteropterinae includes only a handful of small species living in the north and west. They lack the narrow extension (apiculus) of the antenna club. Many skipperlings sit with the wings open flat. They are often lumped into the grass skipper family. Note: Some skippers are called skipperlings but do not actually belong to this subfamily.
  • Firetips, subfamily Pyrrhopyginae. Only one species of this mainly subtropical group inhabits North America: the Atraxes skipper.
Peck's Skipper
Polygonia caterpillar
Family Hesperiidae: Skipper Butterflies comprise nearly 3,000 species worldwide, 250 of which call North America home. Roughly one third of North American butterflies belong to this family. Skippers are named for their rapid, erratic flight. Skippers differ from the true butterflies in their proportionately larger bodies, smaller wings, and hooked antennae, among many other structural differences. The skipper family is further divided into subfamilies. Skippers can be the most difficult butterfly species to identify; their markings are maddeningly similar.
 

Peck's Skipper
 

References
  1. USGS, National Biological Information Infrastructure, Montana State University Big Sky Institute, Butterflies and Moths of North America, Peck's Skipper Butterfly - Polites peckius
               
 
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