Skippers Hesperiidae

Hesperiidae are so different from other described as monkey-faced because of its butterflies that they are put in a super• prominent eye-spots. family of their own, Hesperioidea, all Skipper caterpillars are usually yellow• other butterflies being in the superfamily ish to green with pale lateral lines. The Papilionoidea. The adult Skipper has no head is large and set off from the rest of ocelli (simple eyes) between the com• the body by a constriction or neck. Fully pound eyes, and its antennae are widely grown larvae, and pupae, are often cov• separated, with the apical clubs gradually, ered with a white, waxy and powdery not sharply, expanded and hooked at their exudate. The larvae construct shelters of tips. The tibial spur on the front leg (the leaves bound with silk, and they usually epiphysis) is much modified, adpressed pupate in these shelters. and minutely pubescent, with a cover• ing of long scale hairs, and the hind legs usually bear two pairs of tibial spurs. The Mangrove Skipper colour of the wings is usually dull, most• ly brown and black, often with whitish, Phocides pigmalion (Cramer, 1779) translucent markings, and the forewings Plate VI (5,6) are relatively short and narrow. The body is stout. Flight in Skippers, as befits their Recognition name, is rapid and darting. FWL 22-27 mm. This is an unmistak• Two subfamilies of Hesperiidae are rep• able butterfly, the upper surface dark resented in the Cayman Islands: Pyrginae brown with iridescent blue stripes and a which includes Phocides and Urbanus, submarginal series of blue spots on the and Hesperiinae which includes Asbolis, Calpodes, Cymaenes, Hylephila and Panoquina. When at rest the wings of Mangrove Skipper feeding at Sea Lavender (Ar• gusia gnaphalodes), LC (23.i.2008), RRA Pyrginae are held horizontally, and there is usually a costal fold along the leading edge of the male forewing . In Hesperi• inae the resting butterfly usually adopts a characteristic posture with the hindwings almost horizontal but the forewings only partly open, and the forewing of the male often has an oblique dark band of andro• conial scales. Larvae of Pyrginae feed on dicotyledo• nous plants, whereas those of Hesperiinae eat monocotyledons, especially grasses. The head of the caterpillar in Pyrginae is

115 Mangrove Skipper feeding at Sea Lavender, LC (23.i.2008), RRA

hindwing, and blue marks at the base of Subspecies the forewing. The under surface is similar Phocides pigmalion batabano (Lucas, but has rather broader blue stripes on the 1857) is known from Andros in the Ba• hindwing. There are also blue longitudinal hamas, Cuba, the Isle of Pines and Little stripes on the thorax, paired blue spots Cayman. In lacking pale, hyaline fore• on the abdomen, and the undersides of wing markings, it differs strikingly from the palps, either side of the proboscis, are P p. bicolora (Boddaert, 1783) from His• white. The sexes are similarly patterned paniola, and other subspecies from South but the male is smaller and has a fold in America, but resembles the forms flying the forewing , just behind the costal mar• in Rorida and the Bahamas. gin, which runs from near the base of the wing to about two-thirds of the way to the Species' range apex. This costal fold contains androco• The Mangrove Skipper is found from nial scent scales. southern Rorida, through Central America

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