A few New Mexico butterflies: Hesperiidae

(Skippers)

My butterfly photographs represent chance encounters. If you're looking for a systematic photographic survey, I recommend the Butterflies of New Mexico web site maintained by Joe Schelling. Joe has helped me with multiple IDs. For an exhaustive review of the state's butterflies, check out the butterfly pages maintained by the Pajarito Environmental Education Center.

Unlike moths, virtually all butterflies all fall into a single superfamily, the Papilionoidea, so my taxonomic breakdown begins with a separate page for each family. The other pages cover the Lycaenidae (gossamer-winged butterflies), Nymphalidae (brush-footed butterflies), Papilionidae (swallowtails), Pieridae (whites and sulphurs), and Riodinidae (metalmarks). The images on this page are organized by subfamily, genus, and species, using the classification system used by the PEEC.

When you encounter a slide show, hover your cursor over the images to control the images. If you see an error, please contact me via the Contact tab at the top of the page.

Eudaminae (Dicot Skippers)

Rocky Mountains Cloudywing (Cecropterus rockiensis)

Silver-Spotted Skipper (Epargyreus clarus)

Short-Tailed Skipper (Zestusa dorus)

Hesperiinae (Folded-Wing Skippers)

Bronze Roadside-Skipper (Amblyscirtes aenus)

Dotted Roadside-Skipper (Amblyscirtes eos)

My thanks to Steve Cary (via BAMONA) for confirming the ID. Note how the white dots on the undersides of the wings are surrounded by dark scales.

Tropical Least-Skipper (Ancyloxypha arene)

The wings on this butterfly are about as big across as my fingernails. As I encountered these in the Bosque, for a long time I thought they were Edwards' skipperlings—but locally, those occur up in the mountains, while this species occurs in the Bosque about as far north as Bernalillo.

Kiowah Skipper (Euphyes kiowah)

Formerly treated as a subspecies of the dun skipper, Euphyes vestris.

Pahaska Skipper (Hesperia pahaska)

I identified this Pahaska skipper with a lot of help from Joe Schelling. Steve Carey cautions, "[The] Pahaska Skipper is very similar to the Green Skipper, and they often fly together. Distinguishing them from each other is a challenge that cannot always be overcome without specimens to dissect. Your best clues are qualitative and not reliable in all cases."

If you look closely at the pictures, in one you'll see a no-see-um and in another you'll see two of them. For some reason they were hovering patiently as the skipper did its thing. Perhaps they were waiting for it to vacate their territory; perhaps the were waiting to take advantage of something the skipper had done.

One of the food sources for this butterfly's larvae is blue grama.

Green Skipper (Hesperia viridis)

Do read Steve Carey's cautionary remark for Pahaska skippers, immediately above.

Fiery Skipper (Hylephila phyleus)

Notice how on this skipper, the undersides of the wings are spotted. Albuquerque's public parks provide suitable grasses for the larvae to feed on, and flowers for the adults to draw nectar from.

Taxiles Skipper (Lon taxiles)

Garita Skipperling (Oarisma garita)

Heteropterinae (Skipperlings)

Russet Skipperling (Piruna pirus)

Pyrginae (Spread-Wing Skippers)

Checkered-Skipper (Burnsius sp.)

A common butterfly in the Albuquerque area, from the river to the mountains. The New Mexico population includes two indistinguishable species, the common checkered-skipper (Burnsius communis) and the cryptic checkered-skipper (B. albezens).

Afrianus Duskywing (Erynnis afranius)