Essex skippers (again!)

eccles · Post by **eccles** » Wed Jul 12, 2006 7:49 pm

My local patch has large and small skippers. I have positively identified a single male essex there, although not got a shot of one yet as it flew away after I identified it but before I could get a picture of it. Having identified at least one male there's a good chance others are there. However, the females are even more difficult to verify than males. I *think* the attached pic of a female is an essex but other opinions would be most welcome. Be aware the sun was fairly well down at about 4:30 pm this afternoon so the gold colouring is false.

Wayne · Post by **Wayne** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 12:25 am

I would say that is a small skipper, the essex's antenna tips are black.

Bare in mind I'm going purely on discriptions and Pete's photos, I havent actually seen an essex myself, photographed a few small skippers yesterday though! (and I'm no where near essex :-)

eccles · Post by **eccles** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 7:34 pm

The tips of the antennae look black to me. Even the white bits are black.

Matsukaze · Post by **Matsukaze** » Sat Jul 15, 2006 9:11 pm

Hi Eccles,

It is the underside of the antennae tips that distinguishes the Small from the Essex Skipper - and some Small Skippers can have very dark antennae except underneath. I was looking at one such today, and Pete has some Small Skipper photos which show this here on the site, such as this one:

http://www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/image.ph ... %20(2).jpg

I am based about 10-15 miles south of you. The Essex Skipper is not uncommon and is under-recorded here; I've found 1 Essex to every 3-4 Small Skippers so far this year, with the unidentified ones running at about 10 times that!

eccles · Post by **eccles** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 8:35 pm

You're probably right, guys. Thanks for the comments.