Fiery Skipper (Hylephila phyleus) is a small butterfly, with a wingspan of 1.25 to 1.5 inches. It can be seen from March to November. In our local area, numbers are uniformly high August through October. Host plants include Bermuda grass (Cynodon dactylon), crabgrass (Digitaria), St. Augustine grass (Stenotaphrum secundatum).
In August, this butterfly is a reliable sighting on the Santa Susana Tarplant (Deinandra minthornii) in bed 28 in the Southern California Desert section. Most of the Grass Skippers swarming this plant will be male and female Fiery Skippers, with a few Woodland Skippers mixed in.
Fiery Skippers follow what I call the “Is This Seat Taken?” model of courtship (compare this to the Umber Skipper). The male comes and perches next to the female. He disappears and reappears several times, inching closer each time. The female moves from perch to perch, and the male moves with her. At a later stage, the male starts nudging the female, touching the upper surface of her wings and the rear of her abdomen with his head and antennae. At this point, the female encourages the male by vibrating her wings (though not as vigorously as Umber Skippers do).
It is one of five grass skippers on the Garden’s species list. They all use grasses of some kind as host plants, and also share a similar orange-brown coloration. Another common characteristic of grass skippers is how the forewing and hindwing are laid out one above the other rather than side-by-side, like all other butterflies. When they spread their wings, the hindwing is fully open and parallel to the ground, with the forewing at a 45-degree angle to the hindwing. In many parts of the US, it can be challenging to identify grass skippers to species level, especially if the specimen is a little worn. In many parts of the US, it can be challenging to identify grass skippers to species level, especially if the specimen is a little worn (for a perfect example, compare the upper sides of male and female Fiery Skipper with those of Field Skipper.
Fiery Skipper is the most abundant grass skipper in California, mostly due to its dominance in urban areas (thanks to the ubiquity of the Great American Lawn!). It was originally found only in North and South America. But it has been introduced into Hawai’i and Bali.
