Delaware skipper

not listed

N5 - Secure

S4 - Apparently Secure

not listed

Delaware skipper is a common, small to medium-sized grass skipper. It occurs in the United States and southern Canada from East Coast through the Great Plains.

Adults have a wingspan of 1″ to 111⁄16″ (25 to 43 mm). The forewing is elongated and somewhat pointed. The upper side of both wings is bright yellowish-orange with a broad dark band on the outer margin. The “cell” is a relatively large area in the center of the wing enclosed by veins. The veins are dark and there is a small black bar at the end of the cell. On the female the marginal band is broader, the veins are darker, and there is a dark patch near the base of the forewing. Unlike most skippers, the male has no dark patch of specialized scent scales (stigma). The underside of both wings on both sexes is dull yellowish-orange with no dark markings. The fringes are yellowish-orange, lighter than the upper side and darker than underside.

The antennae are faintly striped. Each antenna has a long black swelling (club) at the tip, and a pale, thin, hooked extension (apiculus) at the end of the club.

The caterpillar is bluish-green or bluish-white and is finely peppered with tiny black bumps. The head is striped black and white. There is a narrow, black, collar-like band behind the head and another on the next-to-last abdominal segment.

Wingspan: 1″ to 111⁄16″ (25 to 43 mm)

European skipper (Thymelicus lineola) is smaller. The wings are less pointed. The forewing has no black bar at the end of the cell. The antennae are shorter.

Iowa skipper (Atrytone arogos iowa) is much rarer. The wing veins are not darkened.

Open woodlands; edges of forests and wetlands; pastures, old fields, meadows, prairies, and marshes; and roadsides and other disturbed areas.

One generation per year: Late June to mid-August

The female deposits a single egg on a leaf of a host grass. Mature caterpillars and pupa overwinter.

Grasses, including big bluestem and switchgrass

Nectar from pink and white flowers, including mountain mint, milkweed, fleabane, and thistle.

Sources

21, 24, 29, 30, 75, 82.

Widespread and common

Skippers have traditionally been placed in their own superfamily Hesperioidea because of their morphological similarity. Recent phylogenetic analysis (Kawahara and Breinholt [2014]) suggests that they share the same common ancestor as other butterfly families, and thus belong in the superfamily, Papilionoidea.

Delaware skipper … on Hills’ thistle a favorite nectar of theirs.

Location: Fillmore County, MN