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I made my second ever visit to Boniface Down on the Isle of Wight last week, in the hopes of seeing Glanville Fritillaries, and again my mission failed. However, this Skipper landed right at my feet. At the time I thought it was probably a Dingy Skipper, but after checking I don't think it is. It doesn't seem to resemble any native UK species. Can anyone help?

That's a Dingy Skipper alright. There's quite a range of ground colours through browns and greys. Your one looks like it's at the darker end of the normal range

Hi Butterflymax - this an extremely dark form of Dingy Skipper. The only time I've seen something with similar markings was in Bulgaria (attached)!
Cheers,

- Pete

Here's a couple I took on the same day near Eastbourne a couple of years ago showing the range of ground colours they come in.

Amazing - it's so dark! All the ones I've seen in Yorkshire have been Galaxy milk chocolate or paler. But that one is almost Bourneville dark!

Thank you everyone for your replies. I hadn't appreciated how much the colour and markings of the Dingy Skipper varied so much. I had even wondered if was possibly a migrant Large Chequered Skipper!