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Sticker of Dun skipper
Bug card No. 1432 of 4,939

Dun skipper

Euphyes vestris
Eats: Nectar and pollenButterfliesGardens and meadows6 legs

The dun skipper is a plain brown, medium sized skipper butterfly. It has golden hairs on its head. The male has a black patch on each front wing, and the female has two light spots instead.

Lives in
The United States and southern Canada, in fields, oak woods and wetlands
Wingspan
2.5 to 3.5 cm (0.98 to 1.4 in)
Top speed
about 32 km/h (20 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It cannot bite or sting.
What does it eat?
The butterflies visit flowers for nectar. Its caterpillars eat sedges, grassy plants that grow in damp places.
For real!Photo of Dun skipper
Picture by Charles T. and John R. Bryson, , Bugwood.org. CC BY 3.0 us, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How wide are its wings?

Dun skipper wings about 3.5 cm tip to tip (1.4 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)A banana about 18 cm (7.1 in)
wings as wide as 6 grains of rice in a rowcould fly across a whole football pitch in 12 seconds

How big is Dun skipper compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Its eggs are pale green domes. Later they get red spots on top and a red band around the middle.

2

The mother lays her eggs one at a time on the middle of a sedge leaf.

3

When a baby caterpillar hatches, it eats most of its own eggshell.

4

It likes damp places, such as swamps and wet meadows.

you asked

Most asked questions about Dun skipper

?What does the dun skipper look like?

It is a plain brown butterfly with golden hairs on its head.

?What do dun skipper caterpillars eat?

They eat sedges, grassy plants from damp places.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Euphyes vestris
Named by
Boisduval, 1852
Group
Butterflies
Family
Hesperiidae
Classification
Insecta > Lepidoptera > Hesperiidae
Lives on
North America

Where the facts come from

  1. Euphyes vestris (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by Charles T. and John R. Bryson, , Bugwood.org. CC BY 3.0 us, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.

If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

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Also at home here: Gardens and meadows

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