Found Immatures of the Local Skippers For the First Time

After establishing the dominant local skippers (Hesperiidae) as the silver spotted skipper (Epargyreus clarus) and the least skipper (Ancyloxpha numitor), we stumbled across some of their immatures. 

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​After just one week of arriving here in Ithaca, we've already seen so many silver spotted and least skippers along the trails of Beebe Lake and other natural areas. The silver spotted skipper feeds on locust (which is extremely abundant here) as a larva, so we figured that it'd be likely that we could find some on it. The least skipper, on the hand, is just another one of those countless grass skippers that feed on certain grasses. We see them flying around grass and we found a first instar on our first walk along Beebe. We never kept that one, but tried looking for them again.  

The collection took place this afternoon along Beebe, and was actually part of our lab for our entomology class, but since this is a personal blog, we'll try to keep collections for course work to a minimum in these posts, and mainly focus on just the things we catch and raise for fun. While hiking along the trail, we made our way to the sunny area that starts midway down where there is grass for the least skippers and isolated black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia) ideal for finding larvae. We first went and took a look at the grass as there were least skippers flying about them as always. After a brief search, we couldn't spot any nests with larvae inside, but we did find a bright yellow egg.

Next, as we past the locust while busy collecting other specimen, we just so happened to spot a gorgeous yellow-green silver spotted skipper resting in its silk nest in the locust leaves! The larva was quite large and was probably fourth instar, and had the characteristic skipper appearance, with a very narrow "neck" (prothorax), and a large, round head with orange spots. The abdomen was very plump and striped in green. The nest was built like other skippers we have seen, with thick strands of silk holding the leaves together into a loose cocoon like structure. It reminds us of quite a bit of the Erynnis tristis larvae we reared last summer at home, they are not closely related. We collected the larva and brought it home to rear rather than kill for our entom class. Hopefully we'll find more of them later on our own time, as they should be very common based on the abundance of the adult butterflies. ​

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Authors
Alan Liang

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