DingySkipper

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dingy Skipper <> erynnis tages <>donnán


Dingy skipper © D Hardiman 2004	Dingy skipper © D Hardiman 2005

DINGY SKIPPER

DISTRIBUTION:

The Dingy Skipper is local, especially in limestone areas and on eskers, and has been most commonly reported from north Clare, south Clare and from limestone areas in Sligo and the Midlands.
It is single brooded.

FLIGHT TIME:

From early May to the end of June

LARVAL FOOD PLANT:

Bird's-foot-trefoil Lotus corniculatus

HIBERNATION:

Overwinters as a larva

The adult is very active in sunlight, its flight is fast and has a skipping-like motion. In the evening or in overcast weather it may be found resting on tall green grasses with its wings folded over its back, unlike the other butterflies who hold their wings upright over their body. The Dingy Skipper is sometimes confused with the day flying moths Mother Shipton and Burnet Companion.

DSCN0013 Mother Shipton Callistege mi © D Hardiman Burnet Companion

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Life Cycle of the Dingy Skipper

OVUM:

The egg is spherical with flattened base and measures c.0.5 mm in height and diameter. Initially pale yellow in colour, soon turning to bright orange as it matures.
Single eggs may be found on the tips of leaflets of Bird's-foot-trefoil from the end of May to early July.
They are laid on the upper surface of the leaf and hatch within 14 days.

LARVA:

The fairly stout larva measures up to 20 mm in length, tapering towards the extremities.
The body is green and sometimes tinged with brown and has a dark green mediodorsal line.
The head is purplish-black.

The young larva spins a tent from a few Bird's-foot-trefoil leaves (Lotus corniculatus) in which it lives and feeds by night. New shelters are constructed as the old ones are consumed and when fully fed, around mid-August, it constructs a more substantial and larger hibernaculum in which it overwinters until the end of April when it enters pupation without further feeding. This larval stage lasting c.10 months.

Pupa:

Pupation occurs within the larval hibernaculum to which it is firmly attached by cremasteral hooks.
This pupal stage continues for c.4-5 weeks.

Adult:

The adult emerges in May and is on the wing from early to mid-May until the end of June.
It rarely visits flowers.