Silver-spotted Skipper

Here's a Silver-spotted Skipper I met, and it looks like it's taking advantage of the nectar from a Joe Pye Weed wildflower. You could probably make a case for a common name of White-spotted Skipper; the large white spot on the wings inspired their name. (Admittedly "silver-spotted" sounds more prestigious than "white-spotted.)

The skippers are frequently small, non-descript butterflies that probably do get mistaken for moths. The Silver-spotted Skipper is less small and less non-descript than most skippers, and are relatively common.

When they're caterpillars, they spend a lot of time eating and pooping, the latter called frass. In order to prevent predators from spotting them from their frass, they're able to expel it up to 38 body lengths away.

They use a variety of - but not all - legume plants as host plants when they're caterpillars. And although human agriculture grows plenty of legumes, Silver-spotted Skippers aren't considered to have much impact on agriculture.

August 18, 2020 at Duke Farms


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