A puzzling skipper photo’d by Harvey Tomlinson at Hunters’ Mill Bog on June 15, 2014.
Steve Glynn and Harvey Tomlinson photo’d a skipper (or a couple of skippers) in Hunter’s Mill Bog on June 15 that left them puzzled.
Anyone out there willing to try to ID the butterflies above and below? Warning: these are not the same individual and they may not even be the same species.
Steve is going back to try for another photo. If he succeeds, you will find an update here.
In the meantime, you are invited to click “Leave a Comment” to note your thoughts on the ID.
Update (6-20-14): See the newly-posted Comments. Jim Springer has identified Harvey’s butterfly as a little glassywing. Steve & Harvey have noted that, although Steve’s photo below did come from the bog, Harvey’s was taken at the Hesstown powerline (an upland site).
Steve Glynn got a more distant shot of this mystery skipper (same time/site as above). What is it?
Jack,
Harvey’s picture above is not the same butterfly as mine. Same location, but different butterflies.
I was not able to get a view of this butterfly again yet, but will be covering this area next week as part of the Belleplain NABA count.
In the meantime, if anyone else has this book, in the “Butterflies of the North Woods”, by Larry Weber, he has a photo of a male Black Dash, on page 243, that looks an awful lot like my distant photo above.
I hope I can get this bug again and get a confirming picture, but I keep leaning towards Black Dash for this one. The others Harvey and I had that day were Swarthy Skippers, and the shot above that Harvey took may be a Glassywing.
I believe Harvey’s photo is of a Little Glassywing. It has the appropriate large white spots on the dorsal side of the forewing and white under the antennal club. It’s probably a female with the large, more squarish spot and lack of an obvious stigma which should show up on such a clear shot.
I’m a little less clear on Steve’s more distant photo. By elimination, the closest match for me is another Little Glassywing.
As a follow on…I got a note from Harvey and he apologizes, but the photo above is of a Glassywing and he indicated that the time line got messed up on the photos he sent along from our morning at Hunter’s Bog. This particular photo was the first photo taken after we left the bog and went to Hesstown power line area. The other photos he submitted, which were of Swarthy’s found at the bog, were part of his grouping sent along to myself and Jack.
I still stand by my consideration of Black Dash, as the habitat is proper for the butterfly I saw and photo’d above, but it’ll remain a mystery bug, unless I’m fortunate enough to find it again next week during the count.