Silver Spotted Skipper Pupa (and other stages)

Just in from the garden:
Had a Silver spotted Skipper make a chrysalis here. I had searched all over for info on how they do it, and made a special cage. With very clean potting soil, I made a shallow fresh leaf litter container. One of the 3 skippers pupated.
In this thread I will post the phases of s s skipper I have witnessed and photographed.

:-D

Notice the detached head shell. I wondered what happened to that crazy skipper face (see following photos), when they became an adult skipper.

Silver Spotted Skipper egg>

The larvae look very much the same all through to pupation. Here the skipper silks down some leaves of Amorpha fruiticosa to make a little house to grow in.

Oh my gosh, those are cute!

Thanks Roxanne, I love these little guys!~
They usually make a personal nest (house), to keep safe and cool in. This one is sharing his with a friend.>

Another nest with just one>

Heres one crawling out of it's nest to have some lunch.>

There are several more pics of Silver Spotted Skipper in our DG BugFiles>
http://davesgarden.com/guides/bf/showimage/3428/

I will put a few of these pics in BF, now that I have a full set of phases. (Note the pic of the above link, there is pink on the lower dorsal wing.
The silver spot is so reflective it picked up the pink in the Dianthus.)

:-D

That is pretty!

I can't believe how complicated these skippers are! They take a long time to pupate, slow and easy going. They have stripped one of my Amorphas almost bare, except for the few nests. Some new growth is coming now, but females fly through the deck often looking for a vacant limb to oviposit on.

I agree Rox, all the way around, these are very cute little fellas! There was much need for documentation on them too.

:-D

Thanks for sharing those Deb. Yeah, those skipper heads freak me out. The Guava Skippers did that too :o) That egg looks almost like a Guava Skipper egg...kind of like a little turban??? Do you have more egg photos?

Can wait to see the butterflies when the emerge!!!

~ Cat

YW Cat! I wanted to documentation as well, (you know me), lol. I will dig around for some more eggs, and if I can find them I will post 'em here.
How long did your GSkips take to eclose?

:-D

great Life Cycle pics Deb. Congrats on your success

Deb,

The Guava Skippers took about ten days...just seems like it took forever for them to go through all the instar stages!!! Guess because I didn't see them everyday as they like to stay hidden it just seemed so long.

~ Cat

So cool. A little disconcerting that the little guy loses his head when he pupates but other than that a very nice cute little story. They are the cutest things. Thanks so much for sharing all the info and pics.

Leslie

YW Leslie,
They actually don't loose their head, lol, the piece there is just a hallow shell. Whatever contents it has closes up with the skipper. Just like other cats skins wind up at the top when they pupate. All the goods are still in tact with them. It just looks weird when ya see it for the first time. The pupa shell even has the cast for the new head and wings already, if you look real close it is visible. .
So amazing!

:-D

Eww, that does look like his head. I remember seeing the shed skin from the pupating Monarch...with the antennae! That freaked me out just a little!

Ha ha...those monarch and queen sheds are freaky...those dried out tubercles make it look like a spider or alien life form!


Got any more photos of the chrysalis? Want to compare them to the Guava Skipper ones.

~ Cat

Will take some more this afternoon, and get back. Go ahead and post your Guava chrysalis soon as you want to.>

:-D

Those pictures are amazing Deb, you are doing a marvelous job documenting butterflies.
Josephine.

Well Thank You Josephine!
It is a labor of love.. and an answer to my own searching and not finding much. What better way to get answers than to have the first hand experience with them?

Today I found 2 more chrysalids under the leaf litter in the pot Amorpha is planted in. So now there are 3 to watch. The 2 I found may have already been morphing at least a week by now. Maybe just a few more days...for them.
Gently turning the litter over around the edge, this is what I saw first>

Figured there had to be another... I dug around some more and found another one>

Here is another egg pic Cat. Appears as though it was just about to hatch>

Here is the other pic posted:
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/p.php?pid=3865130

I tried to clear it up a little more>

Thanks Deb!!!

I had no idea they'd pupate in the leaf litter. The Guava Skippers stay in leaf nests.

Way cool how you can see the body and wing formation on those pupas.

~ Cat

Deb!
Fabulous pictures and info! They have wonderful faces don't they? I've never seen anything make a cocoon in the leaf litter so your pictures are a real treat! Thanks!!!

Adrienne

Never seen a cat pupate in leaf litter either, until now. Plus I've never seen a cat being a cat so long. I 've been watching them closer since July, and took one in, but it didn't seem very happy. I let it go again until I could get it right.

I read everything I could get my hands on, and searched for pics of their pupas in order to get some idea of how to accomodate. Then I read about them pupating in leaf litter. So I made a gladware box with a cut in the bottom for drainage. Layered in a handful of clean soil and then Amorpha leaf stems stuck into the dirt, moistened it well and placed a few cats inside. I could see one of the cats going under the litter through the side of the plastic container. It began turning colors of red and then brown. It looked like it was dying, but I held on even when I saw the head shell lying separatly. Finally it looked like a perfect chrysalis, complete with cremaster.

I was extremely relieved!

:-D

Deb,

One of my White-striped Longtail skipper cats pupated. At first it was curled up in a leaf but the next day I found it had crawled to the bottom of the reptarium and pupated in...you guessed it...the leaf litter!!!

I hadn't removed the fallen leaves of the snout bean vines as I didn't know if there were eggs or cats on them. Good thing!!!

Here's a photo of the bugger. It's got a waxy film or dusting of white powdery wax like stuff on it. Have seen other skipper species with similar appearances.

I do hope this one makes it adulthood. Our weather had been dreadfully humid and terribly hot...am not sure all the changes in temperature are good for these little guys.

~ Cat

Fabulous Cat!
It looks very good from here! Wonder if you can find any more under some of the snout bean vines out there.. I found 2 extra skippers in my amorpha pot. 1 has already eclosed....

I should have waited for it to get more sunny to release it bc it flew to a shady spot and the pic was too dark to make out the details. So I PhotoStudio'd the pic by lightening it up and put back the blue in the sky... Looks doctored, but at least we can make out most of the brilliant detail of the new skipperoo.

Deb,

That is a great looking skipper indeed! Reminds me of our Gold Spotted Aguna. Big buggers :o) which are uncommon here. I so do love those big fat skippers!!!

~ Cat

ps...saw a Brazilian Skipper flitting around the cannas but haven't found any eggs...will look for cat signs in a week or so.

Also...found some iridescent chrysaline castle-like eggs? on my Blue Pea Vine. Have seen several dorantes longtails (brown longtails) and one Urbanus Proteus yesterday. Am hoping it was the u. proteus that left what I think are eggs. Couldn't get a good photo of them as the sun was just too bright and too hot. Will try again tomorrow and post photos for comparison.

Was it you who raised those turquoise backed longtail skippers last year? If so, do you have urbanus proteus egg photos?

~ Cat

Thx Cat~ I wasn't the one who had those, maybe it was Linda or Donna. I will look into it and see what I can find for you though.

:-D

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/IN127
http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/1097256573029196712XZxcsb

maybe that's some help for now..

)

Hmmm...well the things I saw on the Blue Pea Vine that I think are eggs don't look anything like those in the links. Maybe it's iridescent bug poo? :o)

Here's a photo of what I thought were longtail skipper eggs.

~ Cat