Category Archives: pollinators

More Skipper ID Clues

loki bed, pollinators, the Lot

I’d written not too long ago about a little winged insect in the backyard garden which I thought was a checkered skipper. At the time, I didn’t get a good photo of the wings when they were open. Well, guess who visited today after the rainfall? It was fluttering around the catnip.

Top of Checkered Skipper Wingspan

The color of the fuzzy body and base of the wings was a dusty blue. Is it weird to want to cuddle an insect? I did a quick search of the latin name (Pyrgus communis) to make sure this was indeed the same species. Everything checks out!

Skippers in the Garden

backyard bed, pollinators, the Lot

We’ve been having a great season for spotting critters on the Lot. When I was outside watering today, I caught site of several smaller butterfly or moth-looking insects. They were busy browsing the back garden for something to eat. I took some up-close and personal photos to ID one of the little winged insects.

Butterfly or Skipper?

One of the first things I discovered was this small insect is referred to as a skipper. Skippers belong to the Family Hesperiidae, whose Order is Lepidoptera. Lepidoptera is an order of insects that includes both butterflies and moths. Unlike many of its larger more colorful relatives, skippers are smaller, usually wear duller colors, and dart about rather than gracefully wander around the garden. Both their bodies and eyes are on the larger size compared to the wings. A distinct feature of a skipper are the “hook-like projections at the ends of their clubbed antennae.”

Checkered Skipper

Here is a peak at the upper pattern on this one’s wings. I lucked out ID’ing my first skipper because it doesn’t seem many in Michigan have the higher contrast pattern with white and dark brown / black patterning. Most skippers have a combination of browns, goldenrod, orange, and dusty yellows on their wings. Not this one!

Here’s a better look beneath a wing and at the body, head, and eyes.

After flipping through the guide, I’m feeling pretty sure this is a Checkered Skipper (Pyrgus communis). At first I thought it might be a Grizzled Skipper, but that species only has a single brood with a flight time between the beginning of May to the beginning of June. This is August, which falls well within the flight time of the Checkered Skipper, mid June until the end of October.

Field Guide for Michigan Butterflies

book cover for Michigan Butterflies & SkippersThe field guide I’ve been using this season is Michigan Butterflies & Skippers by Mogens C. Nielsen. You can pick it up at the MSUE store or call your favorite local bookstore.

It doesn’t have photos of all species caterpillars, but it has a great collection of photos displaying upper and lower wings of male and female specimens. The book also includes notes on adult food sources, host plants, habitat, distribution across the state (with map), flight period, and any special remarks for each species.

The Giant Kind of Visitor

native plants, perennials, pollinators, the Lot

Another day on the Lot brought yet another opportunity to ID a new insect. This is the first time I noticed this type of butterfly visiting the garden. It was checking out the swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata). It was quite large and reminded me of tiger swallowtail butterfly, probably because of the pale yellow and brown coloring.

Giant Swallowtail on Swamp Milkweed

I began my search with swallowtails in a Michigan Butterflies book I’d received at a conference this past March. Soon I found Papilio cresphontes, or the Giant Swallowtail.I believe this may be the type of butterfly pictured here. The features separating this butterfly from the other swallowtails is the large area of brown and diagonal bands of yellow spots on upper side of the wings.

Giant Swallowtail Butterfly

The guide did not list the swamp milkweed as a food source, but did list a favored nectar source as butterfly bush (Buddleja) as well as joe pye weed (Eutrochium purpureum). Both of those plants are on the same side of the garden as the milkweed plant it was investigating.

I wish I would have gotten a better shot of the back edges of the wings to be sure. The flight time is supposed to be from end of April to beginning of October. Hopefully I will see one again and can get better pictures to make sure my shot at ID’ing it is correct.