THE WOODLAND SKIPPER

Articles

Photo and research courtesy of Ingrid Gowans, Vancouver MG, currently attending MG Advanced Training

It was a beautiful sunny day, (August 21st, 2011) ; I was taking pictures in my garden when this little creature landed right in front of me and posed for the camera. At first I thought it must be a diurnal moth due to its relatively large hairy body and resting wing position, but it turned out to be a butterfly!

The Woodland Skipper or Ochlodes sylvanoides (Boisduval, 1852).

The name Ochlodes is Greek for turbulent or unruly, from the swift, erratic flight of the members of this genus. The name sylvanoides is derived from the Latin silva (woods or forest).

The Woodland Skipper is very common across the southern fourth of BC below 1,000 m elevation, occuring most often in undisturbed sites like moist wooded canyons. It can also be found in every kind of open shrubby habitat, including woodland clearings, small streams, bogs, shorelines, forests, meadows, mountains, and even city gardens (like mine).

The feeding habits of the Woodland Skipper are quite unique. The larvae feed on many species of grasses - yes grass! They particularly like broad-leaved grasses; including Cynodon dactylon, Phalaris spp., Elymus spp., Agropyron spp., Pseudoroegneria spicata and Leymus cinereous. Unlike most other butterflies the adults are not picky about what they nectar on. Adults are fond of nectaring at composites and have been recorded feeding on Tagetes (marigolds), Cirsium (thistles), Centaurea (knapweed), Buddleia, Lobelia, Zinnia, Lavandula (lavender), Taraxacum officinale (dandelion), Lamiaceae (mint), Phlox, Coreopsis, Limonium (Marsh-rosemary), and Haplopappus blossoms. My Woodland Skipper was sitting on a bent leaf of a tall bearded Iris ‘Magic Man’ next to Hebe ‘Alicia Amherst’ and near several other plants listed above.

Woodland skippers have one brood per year in Canada, but can have two or more broods farther south. Males perch on ridges and in gullies to await females, who then lay small ivory eggs that hatch into larvae which are cream in colour with a black head. These first-stage caterpillars hibernate and then complete their feeding the next spring. They diapause in the summer as fully-grown caterpillars, then pupate and emerge as adults. The caterpillars eat at night and hide by day in shelters of leaves stitched together with silk so it is unlikely you will ever see the immature forms.

The adult has a dorsal wing surface of yellow-brown to tawny orange with brown markings forming dark borders. Dorsal hindwing varies from a uniform yellow-brown to having a distinct band of cream to yellow spots or a large reddish patch. The Woodland Skipper's upperside varies from yellow to reddish to browns to orange with toothed brown borders. The males and females look very similar, where the males have a black stigma and a dark brown patch on the forewing the females have slightly wider and darker borders, and there are two dark patches in the area of the male stigma. Wing Span: 22-32 mm. Forewing length: 11-14 mm. (The Woodland Skipper shows remarkable variation in colour across BC, which is now thought to represents phenotypic responses to different climatic conditions, not genetically different subspecies.)

Flight Season: Ochlodes sylvanoides flies from June to September in Canada, however early to mid August will be the time you are most likely to spot them.

Look for the following diagnostic characteristics to help identify them.

Moth-like body: Woodlandskippers exhibit some moth-like traits and some butterfly-like traits. Like moths, they have stocky, hairy bodies and shorter wing spans. Like butterflies, they have "knobs" at the ends of their antennae.

Wing position: They hold their wings simultaneously flat as do moths (the hind wings) and folded up over the body as do butterflies (the fore-wings) - like a folded paper airplane.

Rapid, skipping flight: Their flight is also more like a paper airplane than a butterfly. They have a swirling, looping flight, accentuated when a group of them gets together!

Approachable: Unlike many grass skippers (Hesperiinae), Woodland Skippers are much more easily approached and can be observed at close range.

Thanks to Linda Gilkeson, (Instructor, MG advanced training, Entomology) who inspired me to find out what this was.

Family Hesperiidae (Skippers)

Subfamily Hesperiinae (Grass Skippers)

Genus Ochlodes

Species sylvanoides (Woodland Skipper)

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Bibliography

Books:

Rick Imes. The Practical Entomologit. New York: Simon & Schuster 1992.

Internet sources:

Government of Canada<http://www.cbif.gc.ca/spp_pages/butterflies/captions/WoodlandSkippercap_e.php> [February-27-2012]