Pollinator
Fiery skipper
Hylephila phyleus
A small bright-orange skipper of lawns and gardens, common in the South.
- Family
- Hesperiidae (skippers)
- Wingspan
- 1 to 1.25 in (2.6 to 3.2 cm)
- Flight season
- Spring to fall; spreads north
- Range
- Southern United States, wandering north
- Caterpillar food
- Grasses
- Conservation
- Secure and widespread
A small, bright orange skipper with a scattering of dark spots, the fiery skipper is a fast, low flier of lawns, fields, and gardens, most common in the South.
It flies in many broods and wanders far north each summer, a frequent visitor to garden flowers.
Caterpillars feed on grasses, including bermuda grass and crabgrass, and can turn up wherever turf meets flowers.
Plants for the fiery skipper
59 native plants with documented flower-visit records. Narrow with the filters below.
59 plants
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No plants match those filters.
Sources
- Butterflies and Moths of North America ↗
- iNaturalist ↗
- Plant associations from GloBI flower-visit records and NPIN larval-host data. Butterfly photographs via iNaturalist (CC BY).