UK Butterflies
Building a Community of Responsible Butterfly Enthusiasts in Britain & Ireland
Building a Community of Responsible Butterfly Enthusiasts in Britain & Ireland
Wingspan
26 - 30 mm
Checklist Number
57.005
The Essex Skipper forms discrete colonies that vary from a small number of individuals to several thousand. Where it occurs it can therefore be very common. This species is very similar in appearance to the Small Skipper and, because of this similarity, was not recognised as a separate species until 1889. The male is distinguished from the female by the sex brand on its forewings, which is a short line of specialised scent scales. Despite its name, the Essex Skipper is now found over much of the southern half of England and it was first recorded in Wales in 2000 and in Wexford in south-east Ireland in 2006. On the British mainland it is to generally be found south of a line between Dorset and North Lincolnshire. It is believed that the increase in distribution is being assisted by the steep and grass-covered embankments that are often found on motorways and major trunk roads which acted as corridors - allowing this species to reach new locations more easily.
| Family: | Hesperiidae | Latreille, 1809 |
| Subfamily: | Hesperiinae | Latreille, 1809 |
| Tribe: | ||
| Genus: | Thymelicus | Hübner, [1819] |
| Subgenus: | ||
| Species: | lineola | (Ochsenheimer, 1808) |
Description to be completed.
The distribution data (2000-2009) has been made available through the generosity of Butterfly Conservation and any subspecies distribution is taken from Riley (2007). Click here to see the distribution of this species together with site information overlaid.
This species is found in rough grassland, including road verges, woodland rides, chalk grassland and embankments.
The Essex Skipper is one of the few species whose distribution is expanding rapidly, particularly in northern areas. It is not, therefore, a species of conservation concern.
The table below shows the occurrence (distribution) and abundance (population) trends, using information from The State of the UK's Butterflies 2015 (Fox, 2015). Any UK BAP status is taken from the UK Biodiversity Action Plan (UK BAP) (2007 review).
1976-2014 (%) | 1976-2014 (%) | 2005-2014 (%) | 2005-2014 (%) |  +104 |  -88 |  +3 | -66 |
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There is a single generation each year with adults first emerging at the end of June, and flying throughout July and August.
The male is the more active of the two sexes, and is territorial, unlike the female which is more sedentary. When egg-laying, females exhibit the same behaviour as the Small Skipper. Specifically, the female will alight on a dead stem of Cock's-foot, and then move backwards down the stem, probing the sheath as she moves. When a suitable opening in the furled sheath is found, she will lay several eggs inside. The female of the Essex Skipper selects tighter leaf sheaths in which to lay eggs than the Small Skipper, which may explain a difference in primary foodplant. The loose sheaths of Yorkshire-fog are avoided, the female preferring other grasses, such as Cock's-foot or Creeping Soft-grass, whose sheaths are tighter. Both sexes are nectar-loving, and can be found visiting flowers such as Thistles and Red Clover.
Adults feed primarily on thistles (Carduus spp. and Cirsium spp.). clovers (Trifolium spp.), Common Fleabane (Pulicaria dysenterica), heathers (Calluna and Erica spp.), ragworts (Jacobaea spp.) and Wild Marjoram (Origanum vulgare) are also used.
Eggs are pale when first laid, gradually deepening to yellow-cream after a few days. After 3 weeks, the egg turns white, the head of the larva becoming visible as a dark spot through the transparent shell. The fully-developed larva overwinters within in the egg.
"When the butterfly is intent on egg-laying she flies slowly among the long grass, searching for a suitable stem to receive the eggs, which are laid in a row in the sheath between the stem and the blade and are attached to the latter. In captivity the eggs are sometimes laid fully exposed on both the blades and flower-heads of grasses. A. lineola passes hibernation in the egg stage, which occupies between eight and nine months. On August 13th, 1909, the author captured several lineola females on the sea walls of Wallasea Island, Essex. These were placed on growing plants of different kinds of grasses, and during the following week many eggs were deposited on both the stems and blades of the grass, but most were laid in the sheaths of couch grass (Triticum repens) and cat's-tail grass (Phleum pratense); as many as fourteen were deposited in a row on the same blade, and some were laid singly. Another frequent food plant is the heath false brome grass (Brachypodium pinnatum). The egg is oval, much flattened, being in height only one-third its greatest diameter, which is 0.80 mm. The central area is slightly sunken, the micropyle is just discernible by the small, fine reticulations, which gradually develop in size and cover the whole surface in an irregular fine network pattern; the ground surface is extremely finely granulated, otherwise it is shining. When first laid it is a clear, pale primrose-yellow, which very gradually becomes a deeper straw-yellow, and finally, when about twenty days old, turns an opaque milky-white, with a dull leaden spot, usually at the end of the egg, which is the head of the larva that is plainly visible through the transparent shell; the body is coiled round the egg, the head and tail meeting at the end. In this condition it remains unchanged until hatching. The eggs began hatching about April 20th, 1910." - Frohawk (1924)
The larva emerges in the spring and, without eating the eggshell, starts to feed on the foodplant. After a few days, the larva forms a tube, by spinning together the edges of a leaf blade, from which it emerges to feed. There are 5 instars in total.
The primary larval foodplant is Cock's-foot (Dactylis glomerata). Common Couch (Elytrigia repens), Creeping Soft-grass (Holcus mollis), False Brome (Brachypodium sylvaticum), Meadow Foxtail (Alopecurus pratensis), Timothy (Phleum pratense) and Tor-grass (Brachypodium rupestre) are also used.
"The larva eats away the end of the egg and emerges; it does not eat more of the empty shell after its exit. Directly after emergence it measures 1.6 mm. long, being large in proportion to the size of the butterfly. The head is large, black, somewhat granular, and beset with a few tiny white hairs. The body is almost cylindrical, only tapering at the anal extremity. On the first segment is a transverse dorsal, crescentic-shaped, dark brown band; the segmental divisions are deeply incised and the segments have five sub-divisions throughout the greater part of its length. The surface is thickly covered with fine blackish granulations. Above the spiracles are six rows (three on each side) of minute curved glassy white hairs with bulbous bases. Those on the anal segment are very much longer. The entire colouring of the body is a clear straw-yellow; the blackish granulations give it rather an ochreous hue; the spiracles are brown. The second and third segments have each a lenticle resembling the spiracle. At first the larva lies along the midrib of a grass blade in a straight position and feeds from one part of the edge of the blade, returning to its resting place after each meal; when a few days old it draws the edges of the blade together by a few threads of silk. Before first moult, about fourteen days old, it measures 2.8 mm. long; the colour is very pale ochreous tinged with greenish. The larva lives in a tube formed by drawing the edges of a blade together by strands of silk at different intervals." - Frohawk (1924)
"The first moult occurred on May 11th. After the first moult, about twenty days old, it is 4.2 mm. long, of a pale citron-yellow, longitudinally striped with olive, composed of numerous pale olive granulations, forming medio-dorsal and sub-dorsal lines, and the body is sprinkled with dusky warts, each bearing a tiny clubbed point; also on each segment is a lenticle on each side of the medio-dorsal stripe and one below the spiracle. The spiracles are brown. On the ventral surface of each segment is a brown blotch; these form a medio-ventral series. The head is a dull black, granular, and beset with short white hairs. It lives in a tube as in previous stage." - Frohawk (1924)
"The second moult on May 23rd. After the second moult and shortly before the third it measures 8 mm. long. It is very similar to the previous stage. The head is light olive-ochreous, roughly granular, with a brown clypeus and a brown band down each check; the mouth parts and eye spots are blackish. The body is rather densely covered with black warts emitting club-shaped points; the colouring during this stage is greener than before and the light stripes are whiter, otherwise it is similar." - Frohawk (1924)
"The third moult on June 2nd. After the third moult, about forty-four days old, it measures 14 mm. long. The ground colour is pale glaucous-green; a medio-dorsal darker stripe bordered by a pale yellowish line, and a sharper defined whitish-yellow sub-dorsal line and a bluish-white lateral line. The body is rather thickly sprinkled with shining black warts, each emitting a short white spinous bristle; the head is whitish-buff, tinged with greenish above the mouth, and striped clown the centre and each lobe of the crown with olive-brown, and is sprinkled with whitish hairs." - Frohawk (1924)
"The fourth moult on June 20th. After the fourth and last moult, fully grown, it measures 22.2 mm. long; it reached its full dimensions on June 14th, but did not spin up until six days after. The larva is rather slender and tapering, terminating in a projecting rounded and compressed anal flap. The head is oblong, of a pale pearly-green colour, banded down each lobe with whitish and light brown, the latter colour being the outer; the clypeus is outlined with brown; the eye spots and mouth parts are black; it is clothed with fine white hairs; the segments have six sub-divisions, all rather deeply cut on the dorsal surface. The ground colour is green, with darker dorsal and sub-dorsal longitudinal stripes, bordered with whitish-yellow-green stripes and a conspicuous lateral white longitudinal band; the whole surface is freckled with darker green, which breaks up the pale stripes into a checkered pattern; the sub-dorsal whitish stripe does not extend over the anal segment, which makes it appear much greener than the rest of the body. On the ventral surface at the divisions of the ninth and tenth, tenth and eleventh segments is a white waxy covering; the spiracles are whitish. The entire surface is rather densely covered with fine, short white bristles; those on the first three segments have black wart-like bases. The general colouring of the larva with its longitudinal stripes harmonizes well with the grass blades, and the brown and white banded head resembles a withered eaten end of a blade. The larva is provided with an anal comb for the ejectment of the faces. The larva spins a loose network of silk round the blades and a layer along the central one, in all forming a slight cocoon. It rests on the layer, attached by the claspers and a cincture round the body, resting head upwards for three days and then pupates. One spun up June 20th, and pupated on the evening of the 23rd." - Frohawk (1924)
When fully-grown, the larva spins a tent of leaves at the base of the foodplant in which it pupates, attached to a grass blade by a silk girdle and the cremaster. The pupal stage lasts about 3 weeks.
"The pupa measures 15.9 mm. long; it is rather slender and gradually tapering from the head to anal extremity. Dorsal view: Head blunt and broad, about equal in width to the thorax; it has a central beak with bulging base, concave sides and bluntly pointed apex, which is covered with long shanked hooks, very irregularly placed and projecting in various directions; these are anchored to silk cords spun loosely to the grass blades. The pupa is gradually attenuated to the cremastral point, which is likewise furnished with long hooks, securely fastened to the layer of silk covering the surface of the grass blade, but is much more densely spun at both ends of the pupa, which is, roughly speaking, anchored securely both fore and aft, as well as a silken cincture round the body behind the thorax. Side view: The head rounded, beak centrally placed and slightly curved downwards, thorax swollen and rounded, wings on a plane with the body, the whole gradually tapering posteriorly; the anal segment terminates in a rather long, slightly curved cremastral flap, dorsally depressed. The tongue sheath reaches to the end of the abdomen. At first the colouring is similar to the larva, all the stripes showing the same. The whole colour gradually matures, and when five days old it is clear light green with a slightly darker green medio-dorsal stripe, bordered on each side by a whitish lint and a similar sub-dorsal line, and extremely faint pale lateral lines. The head and wings are whitish-green, the head horn and cremastral process pearly-white, the spiracles white. On the eighteenth day the eyes assume a beautiful rose-pink, which gradually changes to a rich amethyst, and finally leaden-black; the wings and thorax are deep amber and the abdomen greenish-ochreous, but still showing the longitudinal stripes; it finally turns to leaden-black, with the structural outlines grey and wings dull reddish. The imago, a female, emerged from the pupa described on July 14th, 1910 (early morning), remaining in the pupal state twenty days. The last example, also a female, emerged on August 11th, 1910." - Frohawk (1924)
The following links provide additional information on this butterfly.
