Art Shapiro's Butterfly Site - Ochlodes

Ochlodes agricola

admin — Sun, 28 May 2006 18:08:23 +0000

The newly-coined "common name" Rural Skipper is very unfortunate since there is a skipper "really-named" ruralis - Pyrgus ruralis. And it's in our fauna. The Farmer is intolerant of civilization. It is common to abundant in rocky foothill canyons. At mid-elevation (Washington, Lang) it occurs in dry, rocky sites, often with Goldencup Oak and Coyotemint. It does not venture above 5000'.

The foothill populations are ardent visitors to California Buckeye flowers, and their flight period exactly matches its blooming time. Males perch in sunflecks and vigorous chases are common. At mid-elevation less common and often visiting Coyotemint and Yerba Santa. Mid-elevation specimens are significantly larger than foothill and differ subtly from them in color and pattern. One brood in late spring (late April-early July at Gates; late May-July higher), barely if at all overlapping sympatric O. sylvanoides. Hosts presumably native perennial grasses.

Ochlodes sylvanoides

admin — Sun, 28 May 2006 18:08:22 +0000

Recorded from all sites; very common except at Castle Peak, where it may be only a stray. This skipper is only slightly less intolerant of civilization than O. agricola, but it occurs in a vast array of habitats, including chaparral, riparian woodland, montane coniferous forest and shrub-steppe. It flies in the second half of the season, beginning just when O. agricola ends. At low elevation it appears to have two back-to-back broods, flying from late June or early July through October. At washington and above it has only one. There is substantial individual variation, especially in females. The Donner and Sierra Valley populations average slightly larger and are subtly different in phenotype from those to the west. At Donner this is one of the last species to emerge - often not until September.

An avid flower visitor, often seen at Yellow star Thistle, Aster, Dogbane, Rabbitbrush, Goldenrod,and Coyotebrush. Males puddle. In late afternoon males perch territorially in sunflecks, and may remain "on duty" until twilight. The host plants are (largely undetermined) perennial grasses.

Ochlodes yuma

admin — Sun, 28 May 2006 18:08:21 +0000

A very distinctive, large, lightly-marked skipper found disjunctly in the southern Great Basin and southwest deserts and in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and Suisun Marsh. Rare strays have turned up elsewhere; this is an extremely strong flier. The odd distribution has led to speculation that the Delta-Suisun populations may have been introduced. The oldest record seems to be from near Modesto in 1938. But there has been so little collecting in the Central Valley that that fact is not, in itself, particularly surprising. And it has been claimed that the Delta-Suisun population is distinctive enough to warrant subspecies status!

The butterfly is very closely associated with its only host plant, Common Reed (Phragmites australis). It does NOT use the aggressive Giant Reed (Arundo donax). Furthermore, Common Reed is really two entities - a native, non-weedy one (found in our area), and a weedy, aggressive one from the Old World, naturalized in much of eastern North America and in a few places in California. So far our populations have not contacted the weedy one and we do not know if they would make use of it. The East Coast skipper Poanes viator (Broad-Winged Skipper), however, has notonly accepted the weed but undergone a huge range expansion and numerical explosion by doing so.

Two broods, June and September. Males perch territorially and are highly aerobatic. The Yuma Skipper visits a varietyof flowers.