Clouded Skipper
Lerema accius (J.E. Smith, 1797)

Diagnosis: The Clouded Skipper is a medium-sized, very dark brown skipper. It has a row of three small white spots on the costa of the forewing, and several more in the centre of the wing, on the upper and underside. The hindwing is unmarked on both surfaces, but slightly grey-brown on the underside. The spots are bigger and transparent in the female.

Range: The Clouded Skipper ranges from northern South America to the US souith and southeast, straying north most years as far as New York, and, once, to Point Pelee, Ont.

Similar Species: None in our area

Early Stages: The larvae are whitish, mottled with black markings. They feed on grasses, of many species.

Abundance: Accius is locally common in the south, becoming progressively less so when it strays northward each summer.

Flight Season: It flies year-round in Texas and Florida, but usually reaches New York, and presumably southern Ontario, in late August to October.

Habits: The Clouded Skipper is usually seen in grassy areas around woods, and in woodland clearings.

Remarks: This species has been reported only once in Canada, by Alan Wormington, a single specimen seen at Point Pelee, Ontario, on October 30, 2000.

© 2002

The Toronto Entomologists' Association thanks Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada for providing the content and computer code for this web page.