Essex Skipper - Favourite Photo 2022

[Wurzel]

Essex Skipper - Favourite Photo 2022

Week 5

Well things are motoring along nicely and as usual as soon as the Winter Social is in the offing various rail workers decided to strike! Oh well if I set out on foot next week on Thursday I should get to the Old Forge by lunchtime on the Saturday! To cheer us up here are the next set of Favourites.

Please could I ask that everyone waits until a topic has been opened by me for a particular species before posting photos as then it will be easier to keep track of things? Of course our overseas members are very welcome to fill in the obvious gaps relating to rare UK migrants. As in previous years details of locations, dates, times and circumstances would be welcome as would any accompanying stories and anecdotes or other observations of behaviour and interesting other points.

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[millerd]

This species arrived mid-June on my local patch hot on the heels of its close cousin the Small Skipper, and soon began to overhaul it in numbers. By the start of July, dozens of both species were flying. Identifying them can be tricky, but capturing the failsafe indicator of the underside of the antennae tends to lead to some of the most endearing shots.

Dave

[Goldie M]

Those photos are great Dave

I was at Sea Salter when I spotted the Skipper on the 8th of August, I get mixed up between the Small Skipper and the Essex but I felt sure this was an Essex Goldie

[Phil Bowler]

An upperside of each sex from my favourite Essex Skipper shots of 2022, both taken in our Lincolnshire butterfly garden.
Male relaxing on red campion seedpods.

Female feeding from ragwort.

[Neil Freeman]

Lots of Essex Skippers seen this year around my local spots and as usual most of the photos I took were from head on to try and confirm the ID.
My favourite however has to be this fresh male basking in the 'wings flat' pose that newly emerged individuals of both Essex and Small Skippers will sometimes adopt. Once their wings have fully hardened and they have taken a few flights they bask in the more usual 'X wing' pose.

Essex Skipper - Blythe Valley 06.06.2022.

Cheers,

Neil.

[Wurzel]

Essex Skipper

This was taken on site at my work in the abandoned Track and Field pits during my lunch break. I didn’t get out as many times as I’d have liked this year, mainly due to the oppressive heat but also because work had started to bleed more and more into my lunch break. Still this had the advantage of making me much keener in my spotting as I was eager to make up for lost opportunities. I chose this shot as it shows off the more ‘chonky’ outline of this species; to my eye they always seem a little more robust in shape and build(?).

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[David M]

Only saw these once in the UK in 2022, at Swellshill Bank, near Stroud, on 27th July:

[bugboy]

Only saw these once in the UK in 2022, at Swellshill Bank, near Stroud, on 27th July:

27.Essex3(1).jpg

27.Essex2(1).jpg

That second one looks like a Small Skipper from the look of the antennae, definitely some brown on the tip!

[David M]

Thanks, Paul. Here's an upperside of that butterfly:

[bugboy]

Thanks, Paul. Here's an upperside of that butterfly:

27.Essex1(1).jpg

Very interesting, seems to throw the whole antennae thing in the bin, at least about it being clear cut. I personally have never been totally convinced and always look for an upperside of a male for confirmation. I think the colour comes at least partly from scales just like the wings so it would follow that it is open to natural variation.

[Allan.W.]

Interesting individual that one David ,by coincidence ,i took a pic of what i thought was a male Essex with very short almost missing forewing brands but it didn,t seem to show the classic dark underside to the antennae ,so a bit of a mystery .........i,ll stick it on
(if i can find it !) to me your last shot looks very "Essex" like.

[millerd]

Never one to shy away...

I go along with Paul's original opinion that this is a Small Skipper, having had a long hard look at the upperside as well.

The sex brand on male Essex Skippers is relatively short and runs parallel to the edge of the wing. Sometimes there is a short, detached bit near the body as well. On male Small Skippers, the sex brand is longer, is angled very slightly towards the butterfly's thorax, and has a contiguous short dogleg at the end nearest the body. On fresh specimens these features are clear - Neil Freeman's fresh Essex Skipper above is a good example of that species.

Unfortunately, the Skipper in question here is not so fresh, but to my eye at least the sex brand matches that of a Small, rather than an Essex Skipper. Taken with the distinct brown (rather than inky black) colour of the antennae undersides, the scales tip even further towards Small in my view.

I notice that the top butterfly (which certainly looks like an Essex to me) has broader dark margins to its wings than the other one - is this a distinguishing factor?

I never consider myself an expert, and as Paul knows I have got these species totally wrong in the past, so make of this what you will!

[David M]

It may be that the wear over time has distorted the distinguishing characteristics, but the sex brand of this male individual is such that I cannot see it being sylvestris, unless that species occasionally throws out specimens with linear androconial markings, which indeed it might do....it's just that I have never seen this referred to in any publication or online study.

I've learned never to take butterflies for granted over the years as their natural variation can sometimes create unanticipated surprises. However, if sylvestris can look so like lineola even in an extreme variant, then it'll make identifying with confidence these two ostensibly similar species that much more difficult going forward.

Can the two hybridise?

[millerd]

Here are crops (no other tweaks) of both the butterflies you posted, David.

skipper1.jpg (116.86 KiB) Viewed 449 times

skipper2.jpg (116.72 KiB) Viewed 449 times

In the first, the sex brand is indeed linear - a distinct straight line. In the second, it has a definite kink at the left hand end inward towards the body.

At least, that's how it appears to my eyes. The second line is fainter, which doesn't help matters. Maybe they do hybridise - they are closely related and it would be very tricky to pick hybrids out where both species fly in numbers together.

Dave

[bugboy]

a classic head on shot for me, taken at Daneway on a particularly drab and grey day where roosting butterflies became the primary target!

[David M]

Here are crops (no other tweaks) of both the butterflies you posted, David...

Thanks for that, Dave. Food for thought, and I note that Neil F's specimen earlier in this thread has unusual sex brands too, so I'll be paying more attention going forward when I get the opportunity to see both these species together.

[millerd]

...Thanks for that, Dave. Food for thought...

Absolutely, David. I see so many of these two species every summer, and take dozens of shots of both but tend to discard all but the obviously identifiable ones. Perhaps a bit more scrutiny of the others might throw up something interesting...

And this is just the males - differentiating females one from t'other with upperside views only is another level of difficulty altogether.

Cheers,

Dave