CLOSED: Small Skipper Moth?

I think this is a Small Skipper, I didn't see it's wings open as it sat but when it flew I could see they were an orange colour.

The underside of the forewing can be seen, it looks a pale orange with a dark brown fine edge.

It was very small, struggling to be 1/2 in length and smaller than the Common Blue, which I saw the same day.

Please can anyone confirm this, or tell me otherwise?

Sorry, I should have said Butterfly in the title, I have moths on the brain at the moment!

This message was edited Aug 7, 2006 2:48 PM

Another angle which shows the head.

What is bothering me is any pictures I find show the head as round, furry and brown.

The head on mine looks different, more dark grey, the body also looks more grey and has a darker stripe near the rear on the side of the body.

This pic in the link for comparison. The wings on mine when flying did look the same colour, but it was so small I couldn't see if there was any other pattern while it was flying.

http://www.stevenround-birdphotography.com/Butterfly,%20Small%20Skipper.htm

wallaby1, I think you have the right ID on that one. Seems like you have only 8 Skippers there from which to choose.

I wonder why there aren't more photos of butterflies with wings closed -- especially when it comes to the Skippers, who rarely ever bask in the sunlight with wings wide spread.

http://www.nhc.ed.ac.uk/index.php?page=24.25.26.27.30
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/jdsml/research-curation/projects/cockayne/browse2.dsml

Edited to add: Notice how the Small Skipper and the Essex Skipper look almost identical in that first link? I wonder what the differences could be to warrant them being two completely different species!

This message was edited Aug 9, 2006 4:48 PM

Thanks nifty, I suppose the head difference could be a regional variation.

I found a list today of over 140,000 lepidoptera and their food plants (moth searching), from the Nat history Museum, but hadn't got around to looking further. I wonder why I didn't get this link of pics before, perhaps not visited enough to be at the top of the list.

I did find a pic of an Essex Skipper on a personal site, the explanation was it had a black underside to the antennae club, and I guess it's found more in Essex, the County. Still you would expect it to be a subspecies.


It does seem strange that so many should show wings open, but maybe that is the prize as it is difficult to get a pic! Others are of course pinned specimens, which again isn't how we see them, I prefer them alive.

With no other possibility I will call this closed, unless someone wants to come and tell me different!

Thanks.

I have decided to re-open this, as I can't be certain that it isn't the Essex Skipper (Thymelicus lineola).

I looked in BugFiles and kennedyh has submitted pics of the Essex Skipper, the head does look like mine, but the only stated difference I have found so far is that the underneath of the tips of the antennae are black on the Essex Skipper.

http://davesgarden.com/bf/showimage/788/

As I stated above, pics of the Small Skipper all show the head as having lots of pale fluff on it.

Pics I have seen of the Small Skipper can also be seen to have very clear orange tips underneath. This is seen in the following very clearly

http://www.butterfly-conservation.org/species/bdata/small_skipper.html

But looking at the Essex Skipper there is orange showing, perhaps a little more black on the tip. This to me looks impossible to tell the difference!

http://www.butterfly-conservation.org/species/bdata/essex_skipper.html

Although the antennae on mine can't be seen crystal clearly, I don't see any orange on the tip, and it could possibly be a little visible if it were there.

Other examples of the Essex Skipper

http://www.butterflygarden.co.uk/butterflies/essex_skipper.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essex_Skipper

http://www.ukbms.org/species119/description.htm

http://www.dorsetbutterflies.co.uk/essex.htm

Small Skipper

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_Skipper

http://www.ukbms.org/species120/description.htm

http://www.dorsetbutterflies.co.uk/small_skip.htm

Here is another angle