Alabama Butterfly Atlas

Common Roadside-Skipper is one of the more commonly encountered roadside-skippers, but like many in this group, it is easy to overlook and easy to confuse with its Amblyscirtes cousins. It shares their basic life history. Males perch on dirt roads, boulders, or low growing vegetation to wait for receptive females. They sip moisture and minerals from damp earth and are so often seen puddling on roadsides that this may be the origin of their common name.  Both sexes nectar from small flowers. Eggs are laid singly on grass leaves, and caterpillars make aerial nests by rolling leaf blades into tubes.  At maturity, the caterpillar silks itself into the tube, clips it from the plant, attaches it to a secure location on the ground. Using tooth-like structures near its mouth, the caterpillar pulls itself and the leaf tube to a satisfactory location and lightly silks the leaf in place. It pupates, head up, within the shelter. Fully mature caterpillars overwinter within the shelter, pupating and emerging the following spring. They are multi-brooded and in our area, there are probably three flights.

While the Common Roadside-Skipper is one of the most common and widespread skippers in North America, it is not common in Alabama, currently known only from only a few counties in the upper half of the state.