in our gardens yesterday and no where near the mountains! Here's a link to the info about it...
Notice the map of it's range AND it's habitat on this link...I'm in Lincoln, Nebraska. It's at least 500 miles outside of it's area!
What a thrill and a treat!!!
http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species?l=2010
bumping :)
bumity bump bump...LOL
I can't believe nobody else doesn't fine this to be impressive...
WOW. I'm impressed. What a cutie. And you have the bordered patch right? You're just pulling in all of the rare stuff.
Hello Mrs_Ed,
Well, 1st, I stand corrected...I made a wrong ID...it's the "Common" Checkered Skipper, not the "Mountain" one :(
I'm so disappointed...the wind was knocked right out of my sails...Big Sigh. someone pointed out that there is a "Common" species of the Checkered Skipper and I didn't know it. while i was searching my 2 field guides which didn't have either, I went online and the 1st pic I came across was the "mountain" one...so I stopped looking further since I thought I ID'd it correctly...Oh well...
Here's info on the "Common" Checkered Skipper...
http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species?l=2012
We didn't have a Boarder Patch yet. I just read that their host plant is the Sunflower though. Maybe I'll still see one here before it gets too cold. That would be another new butterfly for us if that happens. Here's a list of the varieties that visited us. the Giant Swallowtail and the Common Buckeye aren't on the list because I didn't have the camera in hand when they visited...Grrrrrrr...LOL...so I didn't include them. I hope to see another one of each before the end of the season. the list below has dates which represent the 1st visit of each variety...
1) American Lady (7/23/09)
2) Black Swallowtail (7/11/09)
3) Cabbage White (6/04/09)
4) Clouded Skipper (7/30/09)
5) Clouded Sulphur (6/19/09)
6) Cloudless Sulphur (7/13/09)
7) Common Sootywing (5/30/09)
8) Eastern Comma (8/05/09)
9) Eastern Tailed Blue (7/21/09)
10) Gray Copper (6/29/09)
11) Gray Hairstreak (6/23/09)
12) Great Spangled Fritillary (6/28/09)
13) Juniper Hairstreak (7/05/09)
14) Monarch (7/02/09)
15) Orange Sulphur (white form)...(7/15/09)
16) Orange Sulphur (7/31/09)
17) Ottoe Skipper (7/30/09)
18) Painted Lady (7/19/09)
19) Pearl Crescent (8/03/09)
20) Peck's Skipper (6/16/09)
21) Question Mark (6/14/09)
22) Red Admiral (6/29/09)
23) Red Spotted Purple (7/18/09)
24) Regal Fritillary (7/02/09)
25) Sachem Skipper (7/19/09)
26) Silver Spotted Skipper (5/26/09)
27) Silvery Checkerspot (5/09/09)
28) Spring Azure (7/21/09)
29) Tiger Swallow (7/10/09)
30) Variegated Fritillary (7/22/09)
31) Viceroy (7/05/09)
32)..................."Common" Checkered Skipper just ID'd...August 19th, 2009
WOW, look at you. Sigh. That's just great. Super record keeping too.
Well who was it that had the bordered patch. Maybe someone in Kansas?
Ah, sorry it was not so rare after all. Still a really cute one. I've only been seeing the orange/goldish types or silver-spotted skipper.
I'm still excited. Your Checkered skipper looks a lot darker than the ones I see in Florida. Like, the colors are all the same just far more vibrant. Of course, we're supposed to have the Tropical Checkered Skipper here too, but the only way to tell them apart is to dissect them and apparently some scientists are still arguing over whether they're distinct species, blah, blah, blah. Don't feel bad he's only the "common" one; he's still lovely!
Melanie
