Small skipper
| Small skipper | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Female Dresden, Germany | |
_underside.jpg) | |
| underside Aston Upthorpe Downs, Oxfordshire | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Lepidoptera |
| Family: | Hesperiidae |
| Genus: | Thymelicus |
| Species: | T. sylvestris |
| Binomial name | |
| Thymelicus sylvestris (Poda, 1761) | |
The small skipper (Thymelicus sylvestris) is a butterfly of the Hesperiidae family.
Appearance
It has a rusty orange colour to the wings, upper body and the tips of the antennae. The body is silvery white below and it has a wingspan of 25–30 mm. This butterfly is very similar in appearance to the Essex skipper Thymelicus lineola. In the small skipper, the undersides of the tips of the antennae are yellow orange, whereas they are black in the Essex skipper. The black area on the lower edge of the upper wings also differs. Like the other orange 'grass skippers' the male has a distinctive black stripe made up of scent scales.
Distribution
This butterfly's range includes much of Europe (East to the Urals, including Ireland, Britain and Scandinavia, and includes north Africa and the Middle East. It is typically occurring where grass has grown tall.
Lifecycle and foodplants
Eggs are laid loosely inside grass sheathes of the caterpillars foodplants from July to August. The newly hatched caterpillars eat their own eggshell before entering hibernation individually in a protective cocoon of a grass sheath sealed with silk. In the spring the caterpillar begins feeding. The favoured food plant is Yorkshire Fog Holcus lanatus, although other recorded foodplants include timothy Phleum pratense, creeping soft grass Holcus mollis, false brome Brachypodium sylvaticum, meadow foxtail Alopecurus pratensis and cock's foot Dactylis glomerata. The caterpillars pupate near the base of the foodplant in June with the first adults on the wing at the end of June, a week or two before the first Essex skippers.They are strongly attracted to purple flowers such as thistles and knapweeds.
External links
- Butterfly Conservation
- BBC Science & Nature
- European Butterflies and Moths
- Lepiforum.de
- UK Butterflies
- Jim Asher et al. The Millennium Atlas of Butterflies of Britain and Ireland Oxford University Press
See also
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Thymelicus sylvestris. |