Problema

[Ron Gatrelle]

Hi Herschel
As John said, these will not be females. But let me ask a couple questions.
Are they light colored on the underside or are they a dark rust color with
a faint band? P. byssus byssus males are very light beneath and the females
very dark. Do you have a picture you could post? I am not real familiar
with the Arkansas, but am familiar with all the skippers in North America.
If you do not know Dr. Mack Shotts in Paragould I suggest you look him up
as he is a long time Arkansas lepidopterist and would be a local "expert".
I don't have much in the way of the new "guides". Which are you consulting?
In the Audubon guide the female ventral photo is correct. The pseudo dorsal
shot is 99% a misidentification. Female byssus do not have anywhere near
that much fulvous on the apex of their forewings and do not have fulvous
along the FW costal margin - not even in subspecies kumskaka. That photo
looks 210% like a female Atrytone logan (Delaware Skipper).

For your area of the US I would have the following books. First and
foremost would be the old Klots/Peterson Field Guide. This book is still
head, shoulders and waist above the new "guides". Next would be The
Butterflies and Moths of Missouri by Heitzman, Missouri Dept of
Conservation, Jefferson City, MO.  After those The Butterflies of Georgia
by Harris, U. of Oklahoma press. If you had these you would rarely open the
new ones.

Ron Gatrelle

----- Original Message -----
From: <herschel.raney at conwaycorp.net>
To: <leps-l at lists.yale.edu>
Sent: Thursday, July 12, 2001 9:18 AM
Subject: Problema


> Perfect genus name. All the skipper genera should have been so
> profound. Ahem.
>
> Here is the question. I am a new Leper (this is what my Odonate
> watching friends refer to it as). And that is a long story. But I have
> been running up a species list for a local Wildlife Management
> Area that is in North Central Arkansas at less than 500 feet.
> Basically it includes the woodlands and slight rolling hills
> surrounding a large Cypress Swamp. I have discovered a large
> local group of Speyeria diana that is a pure pleasure (and what,
> pray tell, are they doing in a Cypress Swamp?). But also in a small
> cut clearing along a trail there I have discovered a cluster of
> Problema byssus (Byssus Skipper). Lovely little gals as Skippers
> go. And I have seen nothing but females according to the various
> guides. But what they do is in the late afternoon all the Problema
> ladies perch up in this clearing upon small Hickory saplings less
> than 3 feet tall and fold those wings open. They all align
> themselves with their backs directed toward the dropping sun.
> There are four or five saplings and usually four or five Skippers all
> facing the same direction. They look like orange and black fighter
> jets awaiting instructions. Once in position they become invader
> detectors and if a grasshopper or a Widow Skimmer or a Common
> Whitetail dragonfly has the unadulterated boldness to fly into the
> Skipper sunning area then first one and then all of the Skippers
> give chase up to the edge of the clearing and then swirl around
> madly after each other and then take up their ready positions for
> the next run. These things have made me fold over laughing with
> this craziness. And again, they appear to be all females. What in
> the hell is up with these Problemas?
>
>
> Herschel Raney
> Conway, Arkansas
>
>
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