{"id":58,"date":"2015-07-17T14:13:58","date_gmt":"2015-07-17T18:13:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mbsnews\/?p=58"},"modified":"2015-07-18T16:57:30","modified_gmt":"2015-07-18T20:57:30","slug":"a-trio-of-skippers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mbsnews\/2015\/07\/17\/a-trio-of-skippers\/","title":{"rendered":"A Trio of Skippers"},"content":{"rendered":"

July is a good time to look for three species of skippers that are poorly represented in the MBS records. \u00a0It takes a little effort to find these skippers.<\/p>\n

Marshy areas in the southern half of Maine are worth checking for\u00a0Mulberry Wing (Poanes massasoit<\/em>) and Black Dash (Euphyes conspicua<\/em>). \u00a0Areas with Swamp Milkweed are particularly good for these two species.<\/p>\n

The Mulberry Wing is the easier of the two to identify. \u00a0The large, yellow patch on the hind underwing resembles an airplane. \u00a0The rest of the wings are a deep red-brown. \u00a0This\u00a0Mulberry Wing was photographed in Eliot, ME.<\/p>\n

\"Hesperiidae<\/p>\n

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The same habitat is good for the\u00a0Black Dash. \u00a0This species belongs to the group of skippers called the witches. \u00a0\"Hesperiidae<\/a>Distinguishing the witches is often difficult. \u00a0On the Black Dash above, note the yellow row of spots on the hindwing, wider toward the middle of the row.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Wild Indigo Duskywing, as the name suggests, uses Wild Indigo (Baptisia tinctoria<\/em>) as its host plant. \u00a0However, Wild Indigo does not occur in Maine.<\/p>\n

\"Wild<\/a>The northward incursion of\u00a0Wild Indigo Duskywing into Maine has been facilitated by the introduction of crown vetch (Coronilla varia<\/em>). \u00a0Wild Indigo Duskywings in Maine use crown vetch as a host plant instead of wild indigo.<\/p>\n

You have certainly seen crown vetch along highways. \u00a0This species is planted on sloping roadsides to prevent erosion. \"Guilford<\/a>I have seen crown vetch as far north as Guilford, Maine. \u00a0It is abundant along I-95 at least as far north as Bangor. \u00a0It is now blooming along the Airline (Route 9) between Eddington and Calais. It’s worth checking local patches of crown vetch for\u00a0Wild Indigo Duskywings. \u00a0We have records of this spread-winged skipper from as far north as Augusta but I bet there are populations even further north. \u00a0See if you can extend the northern range of this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

July is a good time to look for three species of skippers that are poorly represented in the MBS records. \u00a0It takes a little effort to find these skippers. Marshy areas in the southern half of Maine are worth checking … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":146,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[228029,228028],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mbsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mbsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mbsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mbsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mbsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mbsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mbsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58\/revisions\/66"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mbsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mbsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mbsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}