Brazilian Skipper?

hpazures at aol.com hpazures at aol.com
Fri Oct 19 21:53:53 EDT 2007


Maryann:

I must have missed your post.? Could you forward your pictures to me as well?? I'd like to see if I concur on Brazilian Skipper I.D.? I've raised these several times in past years and know the species very well.? The caterpillars are very easy to locate and perhaps members might check Canna plants near the shore to see if any leaves have cuts and folds (younger caterpillars) or are entirely folded in half (older caterpillars) containing the translucent caterpillars, chrysalids, or at least evidence of recent feeding.

I doubt very much that the butterfly came in on a Canna shipment, as nurseries generally stop selling them by summer.? Cannas are normally shipped north in spring and are generally pulled up at this time of year.? The butterfly is a known late-season migrant and could be the result of two or three generations of northward migrants starting in spring.? Since Cannas are popular garden plants, migrating females will easily locate cultivated plants for oviposition well north of their "natural" range.? If your butterfly is indeed a Brazilian Skipper, it could well have been born and raised in the northeast somewhere.

Harry Pavulaan

-----Original Message-----
From: Emmayct at cs.com
To: ctleps-l at lists.yale.edu
Sent: Mon, 15 Oct 2007 7:17 pm
Subject: Brazilian Skipper?


Thanks to everyone who's been trying to positively ID my picture.? 

I emailed two more pictures to Lenny. Maybe they'll help with the ID. A few southern friends seemed to think it was a Brazilian skipper too and they're not often mistaken.

Perhaps he arrived in a shipment of Cannas at a nearby nursery, but I can't imagine a nursery in CT bringing in Cannas late enough in the growing season to account for this individual.

The same day I saw a Long tailed skipper at Harkness in Waterford and another in my Niantic backyard.? I'm thinking they rode the same strong warm airmass right into CT and my lucky backyard. I also had several Cloudless Sulphurs and one PVS this fall too!

Maryann in Niantic



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