Silver-spotted Skipper

The Silver-spotted Skipper (Epargyreus clarus) is one of the larger skipper butterflies that you might see in the Tampa Bay area. With a wing-span of around 2 inches, these butterflies are easy to identify from other skippers because of their large size and a bright white spot on their underwing.

Silver spotted Skippers are reported to favor purple, pink, red and blue flowers, only sometimes visit white or cream colored flowers and seem to entirely avoid feeding from yellow blooms. This particular skipper was observed today favoring pink and purple blooms in the Flight Encounter. When not feeding, these butterflies are often found perched on the undersides of leaves especially at night and on cloudy days.

They host on a number of legumes including Indigobush (Amorpha fruticosa), American hogpeanut (Amphicarpaea bracteata), Butterfly pea (Clitoria mariana), Groundnut (Apios americana), American wisteria (Wisteria frutescens) and non-natives Dixie ticktrefoil (Desmodium tortuosum), Kudzu (Pueraria montana), Black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia), Chinese wisteria (Wisteria sinensis).