Large chequered skipper
The large chequered skipper is a small butterfly with a very funny way of flying. It bounces through the air with no clear direction, as if it were dizzy. Underneath, its wings are ochre with white spots ringed in black, like little mirrors.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
Each front wing is 15 to 18 millimetres long.
On top it is plain dark brown, but it usually sits with its wings closed, so you see the pretty underside.
It is sometimes called the mirror because of its pearly spots.
It is the only species in its group, with no close cousins.
It flies from June to August, depending on where it lives.
Most asked questions about Large chequered skipper
?How can you recognise the large chequered skipper?
By its bouncy, wobbly flight and the white spots ringed in black under its wings.
?What do its caterpillars eat?
Grasses and cottongrass.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Heteropterus morpheus
- Group
- Butterflies
- Family
- Hesperiidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Hesperiidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia
Where the facts come from
- Large chequered skipper (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 Holger Gröschl. CC BY-SA 2.0 de, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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