Dusted Skipper

Yesterday The Toledo crew took me out to a few spots to see Dusted Skippers, and though the Karner Blues didn't show up, I was more than happy with the dusted as if was a LIFE butterfly for me. They are very rare in Ohio almost exclusively found in the Oak Openings area. There used to be a few in Southern Ohio, but they haven't been seen there for years. We also had a possible Persius Duskywing, but you pretty much have to dissect them to find the species, and that wasn't about to happen. Here are the Dusted Skipper Pics.
 

Note the white eye-ring and white face



 

Same butterfly, but with the ringflash this time.



Shawnee 5/21/2011

Sorry for the lack of post lately, but all the rain has put a damper on Butterflies the last couple of months. Today I went to Adam's County and Shawnee State Forest and had a really good day. Within 10 minutes of being at Lynx Prairie(the lower end) I had pepper and salt skipper, roadside skipper, zabulon skipper, Northern pearlyeye, and Carolina Satyr. I took a short walk to look for pine elfin, but struck out. Then it off to Shawnee. On the way, I stopped at Sandy Springs Cemetary, looking for Hayhurst's Scallopwing-no luck. I then checked the rest area-no luck. I was about to give up when I turned down the road just east of the rest area and found one on the side of that road. Next I drove up to Shawnee and had southern cloudywing on the way. On one of the back roads, I was able to find a sunning timber rattlesnake, the first I have seen in the wild. I then walked the north end of rd 5, and had pepper and salt, hobomok, hoary edge, and an unknown azure that was probably Appalachian, but oh well I guess I'm going to miss that one this year. Then I checked the spot where I had the dusky azure laying eggs earlier this year and there was a caterpillar on the goatsbeard. Several Red-Banded hairstreaks were around. On poop in the road I found several silvery checkerspots and a least skipper. I think that is pretty much the highlights of the day, so here are the pictures:

Carolina Satyrs












Timber Rattlesnake!

Zabulon Skipper
















Hayhurst's Scallopwing















Hobomok Skipper














Pepper and Salt Skipper










Hoary Edge

















Dusky Azure Caterpillar

Frosted Elfin

Today Jackie was nice enough to take me out to see frosted elfins at Kitty Todd, it was a real treat. We ran into 2 or 3 of them including one strange greenish one. Here are the photos: