Contemplative Zabulon Skipper

Skippers like the Zabulon Skipper are quite common if quite often overlooked. That's no doubt due to their earth-toned coloring and their relatively small size.

These butterflies generally produce 2 broods in NJ, causing population peaks in June and again in August. That makes this fella maybe a smidgen early but clearly part of the June brood. He could be looking out a blades of grass, which would have been a food source in his childhood (AKA caterpillar) though now he lacks the mouth parts to eat grass even if he wanted to:

When I was a caterpillar, I crawled as a caterpillar, I ate as a caterpillar, I thought as a caterpillar; but when I became a butterfly I put aside caterpillary things.

It's believed that they overwinter in NJ as (presumably dormant) caterpillars though it sounds like this is another thing we don't know with certainty.

May 26, 2023 at Duke Farms
Photo 300288117, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)


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