Butterfly: Wingspan: 1 - 1½ inches (2.9 - 3.9 cm). The underside of the hindwing has rectangles of golden yellow outlined with rusty brown with a rusty brown wing border and wing base. The wing borders are dusted with whitish-gray to violet. The uppersides of the wings are golden orange with irregular brown borders. There is a black cell-end bar on the male forewing. Two distinct color forms are seen in Hobomok Skipper females. The lighter one resembles the male, while the darker form (called “Pocahontas”) superficially resembles females of the Zabulon Skipper.
Egg: Females lay their small, pale green eggs singly on blades of grass.
Caterpillar: Pale brown to greenish, sometimes with pinkish hue. Body covered with fine short hairs, giving it a velvety appearance. The overwintering stage.
Chrysalis: Dirty white, becoming pink toward thorax. Covered with a white, powdery down.
Males are very territorial. They sit on sunlit leaves, five to six feet above the ground, and fly out to aggressively encounter any butterflies that happen to pass by. They have been observed in puddle clubs. Both sexes are avid nectarers. Hobomok Skippers have one flight, which occrs in late spring.
The Hobomok Skipper is rather uncommon in Alabama, being found mostly in the northeastern part of the state. It has not been reported from the southern one-half of Alabama. Elsewhere, it is distributed from central Alberta across southern Canada to Nova Scotia, south through the New England states to northwest Georgia, west to Oklahoma, and north to eastern Montana. A disjunct population occurs from New Mexico into southcentral Colorado.
A dot on the county map indicates that there is at least one documented record of the species within that county. In some cases, a species may be common throughout the county, in others it may be found in only a specific habitat. The High Count information shows the highest numbers recorded for this species as well as when and where they occurred.
The sightings bar graphs depict the timing of flight(s) within each of three geographic regions. Place your cursor on a bar within the graph to see the number of individuals recorded during that period.
The abundance calendar displays the total number of individuals recorded within each week of the month. Both the graphs and the calendar are on based data collection that began in 2000.
The records analyzed here are only a beginning. As more data is collected, these maps and graphs will paint a more accurate picture of distribution and abundance in Alabama. Submit your sightings to albutterflyatlas@gmail.com.
Sightings in the following counties: Bibb, Calhoun, Cleburne, Colbert, DeKalb, Jackson, Jefferson, Lawrence, Madison
High count(s):
View county names by moving the mouse over a county or view a map with county names
Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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2 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 11 | 69 | 7 | 8 | 1 |
The Hobomok Skipper is most often found in open spaces bordering deciduous forests. This includes dirt road, fields, stream edges, parks, gardens, and damp meadows.
In Alabama, the host plants for the Hobomok Skipper have not yet been documented.
In nearby states, the larvae are reported to feed most frequently on panic grasses (Panicum spp.) and bluegrasses (Poa spp.).
Click on individual photos to view a larger version that includes photo credits, county, and date.
Photos with comments are indicated by a small, tan dot on the bottom right.