Appearance: Above, yellow-orange with wide brownish-black borders. Male has yellow felt in the forewing stigma. Below, hindwing is orange-brown with a short band of white spots forming a chevron.

Wingspan: Small; 1 1/4 to 1 5/8 inches.

Habitat: Short-grass prairie, canyons and open woodlands; foothills, montane.

Flight Times: May to July; one to two broods.

Larval Foodplant: Various grasses, including blue grama (Bouteloua gracilis).

Did You Know…
Very similar to the Green Skipper (Hesperia viridis) and can only reliably be told apart by examination of genitalia and color of felt-like material in the stigma. The felt is colored yellow in this species and black in the Green Skipper. Females deposit eggs singly on or near the host plants; caterpillars feed on leaves and take shelter in tied-together leaves. Caterpillars form partially underground in shelters of silk and ground litter (Pyle, 1981). Caterpillar overwinters. This species hilltops.

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