Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada

Species Polites peckius - Peck's Skipper - Hodges#4036

Small Peck's Skipper - Polites peckius which skipper? - Polites peckius Peck's Skipper? - Polites peckius Peck's Skipper - Polites peckius - male Peck's Skipper - Hodges#4036 - Polites peckius - male unknown skipper - Polites peckius Skipper - Polites peckius Pecks Skipper - Polites peckius
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Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Lepidoptera (Butterflies and Moths)
Superfamily Papilionoidea (Butterflies and Skippers)
Family Hesperiidae (Skippers)
Subfamily Hesperiinae (Grass Skippers)
Tribe Hesperiini
Genus Polites
Species peckius (Peck's Skipper - Hodges#4036)
Hodges Number
4036
Other Common Names
Yellow Patch Skipper
Yellow Spotted Skipper
Yellow Spot Skipper
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
Polites coras (senior synonym)
Papilio cora
Hesperia peckius
Hesperia wamsutta
Size
Wingspan 1 to 1.25"
Identification
Upperside of male is brown with reddish-orange patches; FW has a sinuous stigma. Female is darker with no stigma. Underside of the HW of both sexes has a patch of large yellow spots in the center surrounded by dark brown.
Range
"British Columbia east across southern Canada to Nova Scotia; south to northeastern Oregon, southern Colorado, northwest Arkansas, and northern Georgia"
Food
Larvae live in leaf shelters on their host plants - Rice cutgrass (Leersia oryzoides); probably bluegrass (Poa pratensis), bromes (Bromus spp.) and other grasses.
Adults feed on nectar from a wide variety of flowers.
Internet References
Butterflies and Moths of North America species account including map of confirmed county records.