Horace's duskywing
Erynnis horatius
Horace's duskywing is a brown skipper butterfly. The male is dark brown all over. The female is lighter brown with a pattern and big see-through spots on her front wings.
Lives in
The eastern and southern United States, in clearings, field edges and roadsides
Wingspan
3.6 to 4.9 cm (1.4 to 1.9 in)
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It cannot bite or sting.
What does it eat?
Grown-ups drink nectar from goldenrod, buttonbush, peppermint and other flowers. The caterpillars eat oak leaves.
How big is it?
How wide are its wings?
🧱wings as wide as 1.5 toy building bricks⚽could fly across a whole football pitch in 9.9 seconds
How big is Horace's duskywing compared to YOU?
Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.
How fast is it?
A kid running fast about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)
A grown-up on a bike about 25 km/h (16 mph)
Horace's duskywing about 38 km/h (24 mph)
A car driving in town about 50 km/h (31 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
Males have a little fold on the front wing filled with yellow scent scales.
2
It visits flowers no higher than about 1.4 metres above the ground.
3
In Texas and the deep south it can fly from January to November.
4
In Connecticut it is a butterfly of special concern.
you asked
Most asked questions about Horace's duskywing
?What does Horace's duskywing eat?
Adults drink flower nectar and caterpillars eat oak leaves.
?How big is Horace's duskywing?
Its wings are about 4 to 5 centimetres across.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Erynnis horatius
- Group
- Butterflies
- Family
- Hesperiidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Hesperiidae
- Lives on
- North America
Where the facts come from
- Erynnis horatius (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Rhododendrites. CC BY-SA 4.0, 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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