Finding one of these exotic-looking skippers is usually the highlight of any butterfly outing. The long-tailed skipper (Urbanus proteus) is a spread-winged skipper butterfly found throughout tropical and subtropical South America, south to Argentina and north into the Eastern United States and southern Ontario. Order by Popularity Order By Common Name. Long-tailed Skipper caterpillar sex male or female J1:37 pm The two orange dots just a little over half way down the back of the Long-tailed Skipper caterpillar indicate that its a male. Overwintering Stage: Not known to overwinter in NJ.Ĭomments: No other spreadwing skipper in NJ is tailed or shows that iridescent blue above. Host plants for Urbanus proteus (Long-tailed Skipper) native to California ( 1 confirmed, 4 likely ). Larval Food Plants: Various legumes (peas and beans), including tick-trefoils ( Desmodium). Habitat: Open, often disturbed, areas with abundant flowers, and-most often in NJ-gardens.įlight Period: Most individuals start showing up in late summer and fall (August into October). Goes unreported most years from the northern counties. Most often reported from Cape May County, where it occurs annually. Also called the bean leafroller, an identifying feature of the green caterpillar is its black or burgundy globular head and orange patterns at its tail. This species flies in most of the eastern United States as. Because each print is watercolored by hand, it is impossible to show exact images of what any given painted print might look like. The Long-tailed Skipper butterfly (Urbanus proteus) is a common butterfly in the southeastern US. Posted in Birding, Butterflies, North Carolina Birding, tagged American Lady, Blue-headed Vireo, Cape May Warbler, Common Checkered-Skipper, Eastern Bluebird, Eastern Box Turtle, Fiery Skipper, Hairy Woodpecker, Hermit Thrush, Least Flycatcher, Long-tailed Skipper, Pine Siskin, Purple Finch, Scarlet Tanager, Swainsons Thrush, Swamp Sparrow.
NJ Status and Distribution: A vagrant from the deep south whose numbers fluctuate. The long-tailed skipper caterpillar is a large green slug-like caterpillar with rings of yellow dots around its segments and lateral greenish-yellow green lines running the length of its back. Long-tailed Skipper was first figured in the 1780s by artist-naturalist John Abbot, working in Georgia, whose drawings and notes were published as The. Home > Products > Butterfly Series - Long Tailed Skipper Standard prints are Black & White, but they can be watercolored on request (by local artists) for an additional fee. When tailless could be mistaken for a cloudywing, but shows much more contrast on HW. Below: FW and HW brown with 2 darker brown bands across HW.
Long, broad tails on HW are distinctive when present, but may be missing. Above: FW and HW dark brown, with pale, squarish, translucent spots in FW (including a median band), and iridescent blue on inner wings, most intense on the HW. Identification: Small-1.8" (almost as large as Silver-spotted Skipper).