The Tawny-edged Skipper (Polites themistocles) is a North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

n butterfly

Butterfly

A butterfly is a mainly day-flying insect of the order Lepidoptera, which includes the butterflies and moths. Like other holometabolous insects, the butterfly's life cycle consists of four parts: egg, larva, pupa and adult. Most species are diurnal. Butterflies have large, often brightly coloured...

 in the family Hesperiidae.

Description

This species varies geographically and within populations. The upper side of the male's wings is brown or olive brown with the fore wing having bright orange along the costa that ends at the stigma

Stigma (anatomy)

A stigma in mammalian reproductive anatomy refers to the area of the ovarian surface where the Graafian follicle will burst through during ovulation and release the ovum....

. The stigma is thicker than the male Crossline Skipper's (Polites origenes

Polites origenes

The Crossline Skipper is a butterfly in the Hesperiidae family. It is found in the eastern United States, excepting Florida, and southern Ontario and Quebec.The wingspan is 23–30 mm....

) and it usually runs more parallel to the costa. The upper side of the female's wings is brown with the fore wing having a less conspicuous orange costa than the male. Near the end of the fore wing cell there are two rectangular pale spots and three pale spots in a row in the subapical area. The underside of the wings vary form light brown to brown to brownish-orange. Sometimes the hind wing will have a crossband like the Crossline Skipper, but it is usually much more faint. The "tawny-edged" fore wing strongly contrasts with the hind wing color. Its wingspan

Wingspan

The wingspan of an airplane or a bird, is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777 has a wingspan of about ; and a Wandering Albatross caught in 1965 had a wingspan of , the official record for a living bird.The term wingspan, more technically extent, is...

 ranges from ¾ to 1 inch.

Similar species

Similar species in the Tawny-edged Skipper's range include the Crossline Skipper and the Baracoa Skipper (Polites baracoa).

Crossline Skippers are usually larger than Tawny-edged Skippers. The male has a thinner fore wing stigma, and it does not run parallel to the costa. The female has less or no orange along the fore wing costa and has two-three pale fore wing spots with the central one being more squarish. The underside of the both wings is olive-brown to brown with the hind wing having a pale crossband.

The Baracoa Skipper is smaller than the Tawny-edged Skipper. The male has a short and straight stigma. The female has a lost of orange on her fore wing and has dark patches in the same locations as the male. The underside of the wings is very similar to the Tawny-edged Skipper's except the hind wing has a pale crossband.

Habitat

This species favors a wide range of habitats including alpine bogs, forest glades, grassy habitats, moist meadows, savannas, and stream sides.

Flight

This skipper flies from June to early August in the north and west, May to August in the east, and May to early November in the deep south.

Life cycle

Most of the day, males perch on grass blades or stems to await females. Females lay their greenish white eggs

Egg (biology)

An egg is an organic vessel in which an embryo first begins to develop. In most birds, reptiles, insects, molluscs, fish, and monotremes, an egg is the zygote, resulting from fertilization of the ovum, which is expelled from the body and permitted to develop outside the body until the developing...

 on or near the host plant. The larva

Larva

A larva is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle...

 lives in a nest by tying leaves together with silk

Silk

Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The best-known type of silk is obtained from the cocoons of the larvae of the mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori reared in captivity...

. The variable brown larva is indistinguishable from closely related larvae. The overwintering stage is the pupa

Pupa

A pupa is the life stage of some insects undergoing transformation. The pupal stage is found only in holometabolous insects, those that undergo a complete metamorphosis, going through four life stages; embryo, larva, pupa and imago...

. The Tawny-edged Skipper has 1 brood

Offspring

In biology, offspring is the product of reproduction, of a new organism produced by one or more parents.Collective offspring may be known as a brood or progeny in a more general way...

 per year in the northeast and northwest and 2-3 broods per year in the deep south.

Host plants

Here is a list of host plants used by the Tawny-edged Skipper:

• Slender Crabgrass, Digitaria filiformis
• Panicum microcarpum
• Smooth Meadow-grass, Poa pratensis