See-Them-Now Skippers

Female sleepy duskywing, Erynnis brizo, photo by Will Kerling, Lizard Tail Swamp Preserve, April 29, 2011

South Jersey is home to half a dozen species of single-brooded, spring skippers that fly only into May or June.

Four of the six are regulars and appear roughly as follows:

Juvenal’s duskwing, Erynnis juvenalis, mid-April to mid-May
sleepy duskywing, Erynnis brizo, mid-April to mid-May
cobweb skipper, Hesperia metea, mid-April to mid-May
northern cloudywing, Thorybes pylades, mid-May to late June.

Cobweb skipper, Hesperia metea, photo by J. Connor, Estelle Manor power line, May 11, 2011

The two other spring-only skippers are such hard-to-find rarities that it’s difficult to say whether we know their flight periods precisely. They are dusted skipper, Atrytonopsis hianna, and common roadside skipper, Amblyscirtes vialis. We have had only a handful of reports of each in our four years of the SJBF Log, and almost all only from the area in and around the border of northern Cape May County and eastern Cumberland County.

Chip Krilowicz and Jean Gutsmith have had the only report & photo of dusted skipper so far this year, at Bevan WMA, Cumberland County, on 5-10-11. We are still hoping for our first 2011 report of roadside skipper. Both species seem to fly for a very short period in May. Please photo and report any individuals you spot of either species.

Dusted skipper, Atrytonopsis hianna, photo by Chip Krilowicz, Bevan WMA, May 10, 2011

Other skippers fly in spring, of course, including silver-spotted skipper, Horace’s duskywing, wild indigo duskywing, zabulon, sachem, and others, but all fly again in other broods later in the summer.

Gochfeld and Burger in their Butterflies Of New Jersey describe northern cloudywing as single-brooded in southern NJ and southern cloudywing as double-brooded here, and our log data seem to confirm that distinction between those two closely-related, look-alike species. We receive reports for southern cloudywing into August, but the flight period for northern is limited to spring and early summer. The northern’s flight our past two years:

2009: May 8th to June 28th
2010: May 7th to June 30th

That’s the story of “spring only” skippers — as I understand it, at least.

Keep exploring and reporting!

jc

Northern cloudywing, Thorybes pylades, photo by J. Connor, Estelle Manor power line, May 11, 2011

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