How to Spot Silver-Spotted Skippers
- 1). Identify the Hesperia comma butterfly species of the silver-spotted skipper. The skipper has many white spots and a metallic silver band on the underside of its hindwings, along with several transparent irregular gold spots or a band on his forewings.
- 2). Look for the silver-spotted skipper in warm climates that have sedimentary soil and rocks. It lives as far south as North Africa, throughout Europe and the Arctic and across Asia, China and Japan.
- 3). See if you can find the silver-spotted skipper caterpillar. It's small, only about 2 inches long. Its brick-colored head has a couple of orange spots. It has an olive green body with thin, dark green rings.
- 4). Recognize the silver-spotted skipper by its antennae clubs that uniquely face or hook backward like a crochet hook. The skipper has a stockier body and stronger wing muscles than many other butterflies.
- 5). Watch the silver-spotted skipper as he visits blue, red, pink, purple, white and cream-colored flowers, rarely visiting yellow flowers. He enjoys open woods, foothill streams and prairie waterways and eats from everlasting pea, red clover, common milkweed, buttonbush, thistles and blazing star.
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