Back in October and November the edges of the woods on my property were alive with loads of beautiful purple flowers especially Florida paintbrush and gayfeather. I spent several gorgeous fall afternoons wandering around down there taking photos of all the flowers and the pollinators that they were attracting. One of the most common visitors to those flowers were the clouded skippers (Lerema accius). They’re a small butterfly with a wingspan of only about one inch. They can be found from Georgia south through Florida and into Central and South America. The range also extends west into Texas and Oklahoma.

In parts of their range, clouded skippers can be pretty scarce, but around here they are quite common. A little bit further south, they are on the wing all year, but in this part of Central Florida they’re around for 9-10 months of the year. Even so, we usually average three generations each year. Our recent cold snap over Christmas wiped out most of their food sources and killed the adults, but as soon as we’re reliably above freezing they will be back. Like all skippers, they are known for their jittery flight pattern which resembles a child skipping.

These guys have an interesting lifestyle. The larvae feed only on certain types of grasses including St Augustine grass and woodoats. The adults feed on a variety of flowers, but they must be purple, pink or white. They usually inhabit woods edges and clearings, but they can also be found in moist meadows, along roadsides, and in other disturbed areas. The males tend to search for females by perching in low brush and waiting for them to fly by. After mating, the female lays a single egg on the undersides of leaves of the host plants. When they hatch out the pretty light green larvae feed on the leaves and stems of the grasses.

Like I said, these guys are all gone right now, but they will be back in time to get to work pollinating all of our springtime pink, purple, and white flowers. Although they aren’t the most colorful butterflies around, I do like having them here. They are prolific pollinators and they tend to be very accepting to people being around them. I also really like their large dark eyes that can show bits of interesting blues or reds when the sunlight hits them just right.