Butterflies and Moths of North America

collecting and sharing data about Lepidoptera

  Sighting 1215815

Russet Skipperling
Piruna pirus

Observation date: July 09, 2019
Submitted by: A_baldini
Specimen type: Photograph
Observation notes: Weather: Sunny and 82 degrees. Notes: These tiny skippers were abundant at one specific location right near the entrance to Butterfly Woods Natural Area, and they literally NEVER stopped flying (it took me a while to catch one out of midair)! Unfortunately, they aren't the rare Two-spotted Skipper that the natural area was named for (along with the rare Eyed Brown).
Status: Resident
Verified by: mikefisher
Verified date: October 04, 2019
Coordinator notes: Males actively fleek ("fly and seek") to find females to mate. Sometimes they do sit on vegetation to sun and rait ("rest and wait") to find females. These are more appropriate terms for mate location in butterflies (see James Scott, Papilio #14 - google "Papilio-New Series" and you can find many interesting papers on butterflies and taxonomy. Mike
Checklist region(s): United States, Colorado, Larimer County