Birds, Bugs and Flight

Butterfly Collection, Volume 1: Hesperiidae (Skippers)

The British skippers are all very small butterflies that are easily overlooked. They are difficult subjects for photography because they are small and extremely active. The members of the sub-family Hesperiinae (the large and small skippers below) make things even more difficult by the unusual way in which they hold their wings - separated like the flights of a dart - which makes it very difficult to get the whole insect within the shallow plane of focus when working at very short distances.

The large skipper Ochlodes sylvanus has a wingspan of only 29-36mm, so is only "large" when compared to other members of its family. It is widespread in England and Wales, but absent from most of Scotland and the whole of Ireland.

Large Skipper Ochlodes sylvanus on Lady's Smock Cardamine pratensis

Large Skipper Ochlodes sylvanus - Underside

The small skipper Thymelicus sylvestris is a butterfly of similar form and colour to the large skipper, but slightly smaller with a wingspan of 27-34mm. This species is also widespread and often numerous in England and Wales, but absent from Scotland and Ireland. It lacks the broad brown margins to the upperwings that the larger species shows, and the hindwings lack the pale markings on a darker ground shown by the large skipper. It can be separated from the very similar Essex skipper T. lineola by the orange/brown tips of the antennae, which are black on the Essex skipper.

Small Skipper Thymelicus sylvestris

Small Skippers Thymelicus sylvestris at Roost

The grizzled skipper is a tiny, hyperactive speck of a butterfly that is difficult to see, let alone to keep track of as it dashes around at high speed close to the ground. The males are extremely pugnacious, and chase off any other male (or any other flying object) that enters "their" airspace and this aerial combat includes a great deal of physical contact. As a result of this, they quickly start to lose scales from the wings, particularly the chequered margins, and begin to look worn and battered. When roosting, they tend to settle, wings folded above their backs, near the tops of dried plant stems or low-lying stems of woody scrub and several can often be found roosting close together. This species tends to be found in colonies that are small in size and with small population numbers (often just tens of insects present each spring). Many of these small colonies have quietly slipped into extinction.

Grizzled Skipper Pyrgus malvae

Grizzled Skipper Pyrgus malvae - Underside (at Roost)

The dingy skipper is comparable in size to the large skipper (27-34mm span), but is a very different insect in both colour and form. When newly emerged, the adult is attractively patterned in various shades of browns and greys that vary between the sexes and individuals. When older and worn, however, this patterning tends to deteriorate into a genuinely "dingy" more uniform brown. When feeding or basking in the sun, they usually hold their wings "flat" like most other butterflies and can sometimes be seen with the wings folded vertically but when roosting this species has a very unusual behaviour, unique among British butterflies. It finds a roosting site, very often a dried flower head, and holds its body close to the plant while folding its wings, moth-like, in a "roof" shape with the upper forewings exposed. In this position, the importance of the brown-grey patterning becomes apparent, as it appears to become part of the dead, dried plant stem.