Skipper vs Skipper: Part 2

I posted last week about the Long Tailed Skipper and Dorantes Skipper which are often found on the same legume host plants, sometimes nearly side by side.

The chrysalis on the left is a Long Tailed Skipper (Urbanus proteus). The white coating on the outside of the chrysalis is a wax that makes the outside of the chrysalis appear frosted. Skipper caterpillars have wax glands on their abdomen that allow caterpillars to produce wax, much like bees do. Many grass skippers incorporate wax into the walls of their leaf shelters that protect caterpillar and chrysalis alike.

Interesting to me, this wax coating on the chrysalis bears a striking resemblance to a chrysalis covered in a fine layer of mold almost seeming to indicate that the insect inside has died and the chrysalis is decomposing. I am looking for more information on wax production among skipper butterflies and will share that information should I stumble across it.

The brown and beige chrysalis on the right belongs to the closely related Dorantes Skipper (Urbanus dorantes). Unlike the Long-Tailed Skipper, the Dorantes chrysalis does not have a wax coating, giving me an easy way to tell the two species apart in this part of their life cycle.