One of the two butterflies below is an Essex Skipper, and the other is a Small Skipper, but can you tell which is which?
Very similar aren't they? And from most angles, it is very hard to seperate these two species.
I photographed both of them at the beginning of last week, at a newly discovered hot spot for these small butterflies on my local urban fringe site, Stoke's Field. Grasses, wildflowers, south facing slope- all the main ingredients for perfect Skippers habitat. If there was such thing as a heaven for Skippers, this is probably what it would look like...
Essex Skippers are the more localised version of the Small Skipper, the latter of which can be found just about anywhere, but how do you know when your Skipper is from Essex? Apart from the estury accent and the 'simple' fashion sense, the best way is to look head on at the tips of the antennae. From this view, there is no mistaking the two, with Essex Skipper having all black antennae tips...
And the Small Skipper with its orangey, browny, not-black antennae tips (don't mind the poor focusing, was taken in gale force winds on top of a hill, whilst lying down in mud)...
All Black antennae tips- Essex...
Orange antennae tips- Small...
Another 'orange' Skipper, the Large Skipper, is also flying about at this time of the year in large numbers, but can fairly easily be told apart from the above two by the slight chequered markings on the wings, and, of course, the larger size...
Well now I've got that sorted out, there should be no excuses for anyone to mix up these two species ever again.
The author of this blog takes no responsibility for any mis-identifications of Essex or Small Skipper caused by reading this highly erroneous post.
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