Essex Skipper
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Essex Skipper | |
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| Female | |
| Conservation status | |
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Not evaluated (IUCN 3.1)
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Lepidoptera |
| Superfamily: | Hesperioidea |
| Family: | Hesperiidae |
| Subfamily: | Hesperiinae |
| Genus: | Thymelicus |
| Species: | T. lineola |
| Binomial name | |
| Thymelicus lineola (Ochsenheimer), 1808 |
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The Essex Skipper (Thymelicus lineola) is a butterfly of the Hesperiidae family. In the USA it is known as the European Skipper.
With a wingspan of 2.5 to 2.9 cm it is very similar in appearance to the Small Skipper Thymelicus sylvestris. The easiest way to tell the difference between the two is to look at the tips of the antennae. The Essex skippers are black whereas those of the Small Skipper are orange. This butterfly occurs throughout much of Europe. Its range spreads from southern Scandinavia, east to Asia and North Africa. It was only identified in the UK in 1889 and its range is expanding both in England and in northern Europe. In North America, this butterfly was accidentally introduced in 1910 via London, Ontario. A distribution map is available from the Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center.
[edit] Life cycle
Eggs are laid in strings on the stems of grasses where they remain over the winter. The favoured foodplant is Cock's-foot (Dactylis glomerata) and it rarely uses the Small Skipper's favoured foodplant Yorkshire Fog. Other choices include Creeping Soft Grass (Holcus mollis), Couch Grass (Elymus repens), Timothy-grass (Phleum pratense), Meadow Foxtail (Alopecurus pratensis), False Brome (Brachypodium sylvaticum) and Tor-grass (Brachypodium pinnatum). The caterpillars emerge in the spring and feed until June before forming shelters from leaves tied with silk at the base of the foodplant to pupate. The adult flies from July to August. Like most skippers, they are fairly strictly diurnal, though individuals are very rarely encountered during the night (Fullard & Napoleone 2001).
[edit] References
- Asher, Jim et al.: The Millennium Atlas of Butterflies of Britain and Ireland Oxford University Press
- Fullard, James H. & Napoleone, Nadia (2001): Diel flight periodicity and the evolution of auditory defences in the Macrolepidoptera. Animal Behaviour 62(2): 349–368. doi:10.1006/anbe.2001.1753 PDF fulltext
[edit] External links
- European Skipper page from Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center including a USA distribution map.
- Essex Skipper page from Butterfly Conservation.org.
- Essex Skipper page from www.ukbutterflies.co.uk.
[edit] See also
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Thymelicus lineola |
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Wikispecies has information related to: Thymelicus lineola |
