Description
 The European skipper has a wingspan of 1 inch. The uppersides of its wings are burnt orange with a dark brown border. The underside of its forewings is a dull orange and the underside of its hindwings is a grayish-brown. The male has a small, narrow black stigma on its forewings. The stigma is a section of scent cells located on the forewings of the males of some species of butterflies.
Range
 In North America, their are two populations of European skipper. The eastern population is found from Newfoundland, Canada west to eastern North Dakota and south to Missouri, Kentucky, and the Carolinas. The western population is found in parts of Idaho, Montana, Colorado, Wyoming, and
Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia, Canada. The European skipper is also found in Europe and Asia. The European skipper is found in New Hampshire.
Habitat
The European skipper
is found in open grassy areas like meadows, hayfields, pastures, and roadsides. |
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Diet
The European skipper caterpillar eats a variety of grasses, including Timothy grass,
cocksfoot, and
couch grass. The adult European skipper eats nectar from low growing flowers like
thistles, ox-eye daisy, fleabane, white clover, red clover, orange hawkweed, common milkweed, and swamp milkweed.
Lifecycle
 The male European skipper hovers low to the ground searching for a mate. The female European skipper lays strings of around 30 eggs on the stem of a host plant. The eggs overwinter and hatch in the spring. The European skipper is the only skipper species in which the eggs overwinter. The caterpillars eat the leaves of the host plant. They make a nest by rolling themselves up in leaves and tying the leaves together with silk!
Behavior
The European skipper is an introduced species. In its native range in Europe and Asia it is called the
Essex Skipper. It was accidentally brought into London, Ontario in Canada in 1910 in a shipment of Timothy grass seeds. The range of the European skipper is expanding, perhaps because its eggs are sometimes transported with hay deliveries. |
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