Fiery Skippers making more skippers.

I caught these two Fiery Skippers (Hylephila phyleus) demonstrating love among the bugs.

Fiery skippers are one of the more common Florida skippers and like many other skippers are often confused with moths. Even though they are generally dull in color, Skippers are technically butterflies even though they don't much resemble Monarchs or Swallowtails.

There are over 3500 recognized species of Skippers in the family Hesperidae that break down into 6 subfamilies. The Fiery Skippers are in the subfamily Hesperiinae, known as Grass Skippers. Fiery Skippers and the 2000 species closely related to them host on grasses as larvae.

Fiery Skippers host on Bermuda grass (Cynodon dactylon), crabgrass (Digitaria), St. Augustine grass (Stenotaphrum secundatum) and are often found buzzing about lawns. For nectar, they are a common find around lantana, porterweeds and other flowering plants that bear clusters of small flowers.