This week we have a short tale about a butterfly with long tails, the Long-tailed Skipper (Urbanus proteus).
The Long-tailed Skipper is a medium-sized butterfly, but large for a Skipper, which is the family of small-winged, fast-flying butterflies to which it belongs. This butterfly holds its triangular wings outward at a forty-five degree angle from its body. Those wings are colored a neutral grayish-brown below with ebony bands across the hindwing and ivory spots near the tip of the forewing. This hindwing trails downward into a long tail hanging out beyond the end of its abdomen, which became this species’ namesake. On the upper side an unexpected blast of brass and iridescent turquoise saturates the body and inner wings of the Long-tailed Skipper. Towards the edges of the wings a warmly-toned brown emerges and those translucent ivory spots from below show through. The Long-tailed Skipper sports the most easily seen blue of all our native butterflies, as most hide their brilliant blues behind closed wings.
The Long-tailed Skipper is commonly found anywhere there is nectar but is particularly fond of brushy woodland edges, pine savannas, and vegetable gardens. The reason being is that its caterpillars host on many species of legumes, most commonly vining species. Larval host plants include wild plants like the aptly named Butterfly Pea (Clitoria mariana), our American Wisteria (Wisteria frutescens), and several species of Beggar’s-Ticks (Desmodium spp.) as well as many agricultural crops such as the common Garden Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) and Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata). Because of their affinity for all things bean, they’ve also earned the moniker of Bean Leafroller. This name comes from the defensive strategy employed by their caterpillars, in which they chew out the ends of a section of leaf and then fold it over on top of themselves to hide from predators. As they get larger, they eventually fold over entire leaves like a taco and glue the edges together with silk. Their caterpillar is a mottled green with a prominent yellow stripe down each flank and a black head with red cheeks. In more tropical climates, they can become a significant agricultural pest.
The Long-tailed Skipper is a very common species here on Edisto Island from late summer until the end of the year but their abundance increases dramatically the later in the year it gets. This is because the Long-tailed skipper is one of our many tropical migrant butterflies. As their populations swell in Florida, they gradually, and then rapidly, push north up the coast in search of new habitat, eventually saturating the state.
