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Dukes' Skipper (Euphyes dukesi [Lindsey])
Wing span: 1 1/2 - 1 3/4 inches (3.8 - 4.5 cm).
Identification: Upperside is sooty black; male forewing has a stigma, female forewing has a few pale spots. Underside of hindwing is pale brown with a yellow streak through the cell.
Life history: Males patrol to find receptive females. Eggs are deposited singly under host plant leaves. Fourth-stage caterpillars overwinter.
Flight: Two broods from June-September in the mid-South; three broods from May-November in the Deep South.
Caterpillar hosts: Sedges including hairy sedge (Carex lacustris) and shoreline sedge (Carex hyalinolepis).
Adult food: Nectar from flowers of pickerelweed, sneezeweed, hibiscus, and blue mistflower.
Habitat: Shaded tupelo swamps, partially shaded marshes or ditches.
Range: Three populations in the eastern United States: 1) along the Atlantic Coast from southeast Virginia to northern peninsular Florida, 2) the lower Mississippi Valley from central Missouri and southern Illinois south to the Gulf Coast, and 3) southern Ontario, southeastern Michigan, northeastern Indiana, and northern Ohio.
Conservation: Populations should be conserved wherever found.
The Nature Conservancy Global Rank: G3 - Very rare or local throughout its range or found locally in a restricted range (21 to 100 occurrences). (Threatened throughout its range).
Management needs: None reported.
References:
Opler, P. A. and G. O. Krizek. 1984. Butterflies east of the Great Plains. Johns
Hopkins University Press, Baltimore. 294 pages, 54 color plates.
Opler, P. A. and V. Malikul. 1992. A field guide to eastern butterflies. Peterson
field guide #4. Houghton-Mifflin Co., Boston. 396 pages, 48 color plates.
Scott, J. A. 1986. The butterflies of North America. Stanford University Press,
Stanford, Calif. 583 pages, 64 color plates.
Stanford, R. E. and P. A. Opler. 1993. Atlas of western USA butterflies including
adjacent parts of Canada and Mexico. Denver and Fort Collins, CO.
Author: Jane M. Struttmann
State and Regional References:
Glassberg, J. 1993. Butterflies Through Binoculars: A Field Guide to
Butterflies in the Boston-New York-Washington Region. Oxford Univ. Press,
New York, N.Y. 160 pp.
Clark, A.H. and Clark, L.F. 1951. The Butterflies of Virginia. Smithsonian
Miscellaneous collection No. 116:1-239.
Layberry, R.A., Hall, P.W. & Lafontaine, D.J., 1998. The Butterflies of
Canada. University of Toronto Press, Toronto, ON. 280 pp.
Opler, P.A. 1998. A field guide to eastern butterflies, revised format.
Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston.
Woodbury, E.N. 1994. Butterflies of Delmarva. Delaware Nature Society, Inc.,
Tidewater Publishers, Centreville, MD. 138 pp. [NOTE: this book only
treats True Butterflies (Papilionoidea). It does not treat Skippers
(Hesperioidea).]
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