Woodland Skippers are fairly common this time of year, and are recognizable from their fighter-jet wing profile.
Both the common name, Skipper, and the genus name, Ochlodes, are a nod to the butterflies’ zig-zagging flight pattern. The Greek word ochlos means agitated or unruly, and refers to the unpredictable motions of a crowd of people.
Skippers are outliers among butterflies, which are usually defined by having knobbed antennae. Instead, skipper antennae end in a flattened and tapered leaf shape. Woodland Skipper antennae may appear orange or black-tipped, because the upper side of the “leaf” is tinted darker.
When members of the Hesperiinae sub-family of “folded-wing skippers” open their wings, the larger hind wings flatten to make a platform, and the smaller, upper wings fold out on top at a 45 to 90 degree angle.
Male woodland skippers have nifty glandular devices called androconia. These are specialized scales on the wings that emit pheromones and attract females. On Ochlodes sylvanoides, the androconia show up as black spots, or stigma, which bleed into a brown stripe on the upper side of the forewings. Females have a larger dark area in the same location, and wider dark margins on the upper wings.
Females lay eggs in the later summer or early fall and the new generation spends the winter as first-stage caterpillars. Woodland Skipper caterpillars are said to feed on a variety of grasses, but a butterfly expert from U.C. Davis wrote that he watched a female lay eggs on twigs, away from nearby grass, and wondered if the strategy would keep the eggs safer from predators and parasitoids.
O. sylvanoides are common at Mount Pisgah for the next month or two. Look for them on the purple heads of pennyroyal, or, really, on any blooming flower.
Stay curious!
See more of Karen’s work here.
Sources:
A summary of the species, with pictures of adult male and female wing patterns: https://queenbeefarms.ca/pages/the-woodland-skipper-ochlodes-sylvanoides. Accessed 7/17/25.
Art Shapiro’s notes about O. sylvanoides depositing eggs: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/291301907_Oviposition_on_a_Shrubby_Dicot_by_Ochlodes_sylvanoides_BoisduvalHesperiidae. Accessed 7/17/25.
All photos by Karen Richards.