Now that the butterflies are returning, I’m seeing more and more of them each day. Being very early in the year yet, most of them are in good shape, but a few have torn wings. This pretty little fiery skipper (Hylephila phyleus) is the only one I’ve seen missing an antenna, though. When I first saw it, I thought that one was just lined up behind the other, but when I got a slightly different angle, it was easy to tell that the left antenna was completely missing. Even though the antennas look pretty fragile, it’s pretty unusual to see a butterfly completely missing one. Torn wings, and even missing legs aren’t that unusual, and I’ve seen quite a few broken antennas or antennas missing tips, but I think this is the first one I’ve ever seen missing a whole antenna. It didn’t seem to bother the butterfly at all, but it definitely seemed kind of odd to me.