Grass Skippers (Hesperiinae sub-family)

Identifying Grass Skippers isn't easy, but it can be far more frustrating than necessary if you rely on sources that describe and picture clearly only wing patterns and stick with small pictures displaying only mint-condition individuals.   In addition, sources relying on photos of live skippers (or sketches copied from them) tend to display only two views: 1) the ventral side of the hind wing, and 2) the dorsal sides of one forewing and one hind wing.  Wings are subject to more damage, including fading, than any other part of the skipper, while antennae clubs retain their color and differ enough across species to offer key identification information.  

On the other hand, the best identification aids possible are useless when used to identify skippers in photos with certain problems.  The grass skipper pages on this site are intended to make the identification process easier, starting out by showing how not to do it: see Mystery Skippers.

The grass skippers on this page are the ones I have the fewest photos for, so this page won't show you the whole identification process.  Fortunately, some of these skippers were distinctive enough to be identified with one or two photos.   But later grass skipper pages (see above links) will each focus on a different grass skipper species in more detail than is shown here.  To tour the grass skipper pages, start here.

Lace-winged Roadside-Skipper (Amblyscirtes aesculapius)

Lace-winged Roadside Skipper, I'on Swamp, Francis Marion National Forest, Charleston County, SC, 3/29/06.  This skipper looked very much like a Carolina Satyr or a Gemmed Satyr in flight.

Salt Marsh Skipper (Panonquina panonquin)

Salt Marsh Skipper, Springer's Point Nature Preserve, Ocracoke, NC, 5/10/06	Salt Marsh Skipper, Ocracoke, Hyde County, NC, 5/13/07

Dun Skipper (Euphyes vestris)

Dun Skipper, Duke Gardens, Durham, NC, 8/26/07	Dun Skipper, Duke Gardens, Durham, NC, 8/18/07

Palatka Skipper (Euphyes pilatka)

This skipper has a G3 Nature Conservancy Global Rank, meaning it is "very rare or local throughout its range or found locally within a restricted range" or "threatened throughout its range."  It appears to fall in the limited range category, i.e., swamps in a particular coastal area.

Palatka Skipper, Alligator National Wildlife Refuge, Dare County, 5/25/04.   Thanks to Jeff Pippen for ID.	Dare County, NC, 10/6/05.  This skipper hid deep in tall marsh grass.  Thanks to Harry LeGrand for ID; Will Cook agrees.	Same skipper.

Delaware Skipper (Anatrytone logan)

Delaware Skipper, Eno River SP, Old Cole Mill Road access (Orange County, NC), 8/17/05.	Delaware Skipper, same skipper.	Male Delaware Skipper, Duke Gardens, Durham, NC, 9/11/06

Delaware Skipper caterpillar, Eno River State Park, Old Cole Mill Road access, 6/23/05, found in the same place as the adult pictured above.

Brazilian Skipper (Calpodes ethlius)

Carolina Beach, 9/30/04

Eufala Skipper (Lerodea eufala)

Eno River SP, Old Cole Mill Road access, 9/16/05.  A somewhat worn individual.  Thanks to Will Cook for ID.

Swarthy Skipper (Nastra Iherminier)

Penny's Bend, Durham County, NC, 9/10/05.	Penny's Bend, Durham County, NC, 8/23/05.

Tawny-Edged Skipper (Polites themistocles)

North Carolina Botanical Garden, 8/26/05	Same skipper	NC Botanical Garden, 8/26/05.  Photo taken by Karl Gottschalk.

Puerto Rico mystery skippers

Byssus Skipper? (Problema byssus),  Isla Verde (San Juan), Puerto Rico, 1/11/05.  I think it's a Byssus, anyway.   It's also found throughout Florida and Missouri, so I'm not surprised I saw one this far away.	Mystery Skipper, Isla Verde, Puerto Rico, 1/09/05.  This skipper seems similar to the one on the left, but the dorsal side of the hind wings is somewhat different.

Start Grass Skipper Tour

Grass skippers are small and not very showy on the whole.  But they are a remarkable group, with more finely controlled flight maneuvers than any other butterflies or skippers.   They're real survivors, more likely to look faded than torn-up.  They migrate long distances and survive better in cold and/or wet environments than most "true" butterflies.  They show more obvious sexual dimorphism than the others do, too.

The grass skippers are especially hard to identify because of the reason that they're also known as "folded-wing" skippers: they typically put their forewings together and fold their hind wings over them, greatly reducing visibility.   Sometimes it gets better, such as when they're waiting for a mate and put their hind wings down flat and open their forewings at a 45-degree angle.   If you manage to look straight down on the one forewing, you can get a view of the dorsal sides of both wings.  If you get down a little lower, you can get three unique wing views, i.e., the dorsal view of one hind wing, the ventral view of the forewing on the same side, and the dorsal view of the other forewing.  But it takes more than the standard dorsal/ventral paired views necessary for the "true" butterflies to provide enough visual information for grass skipper identification.    And when you can't get the ideal two or three views, you have to break down and go to the dead butterfly sites.

It's probably no coincidence that grass skippers sometimes seem to be posing for photographers, however.  Like us, other skippers may have to see all these views to make a positive identification.   From all the evidence I've seen, skippers have excellent vision and image processing (interpretation of what they see) capabilities, and when it seems that they're not paying attention to us they might well just be weighing the alternatives.  When they do decide that trouble is coming their way, they don't "skip" around the way Silver-Spotted Skippers do: they move deftly and rapidly, in a way houseflies should envy.   Still in all, the effects of wear and tear can disguise many normally identifying features of a skipper.