About Hesperia comma colorado (Scudder, 1874)
Hesperia comma, a butterfly in the family Hesperiidae, is called the silver-spotted skipper in Europe, and the common branded skipper in North America. In North America, the spread-winged skipper Epargyreus clarus also holds the common name "silver-spotted skipper".
This species is often confused with the large skipper Ochlodes sylvanus, but can be easily distinguished by the numerous white spots on its underside hindwings. The tips of its upper forewings also tend to be darker than those of the large skipper. Their flight periods rarely overlap: in Britain, the large skipper has almost finished flying when the silver-spotted skipper takes flight in August.
The silver-spotted skipper prefers warm calcareous sites. It has a wide distribution, ranging south to North Africa, north through Europe to the Arctic, and east across Asia to China and Japan. It also has subspecies in North America. In the UK, it is rare and restricted to the chalk downlands of southern England.
Females lay single eggs in August and September on the leaf blades of sheep's fescue Festuca ovina, its only foodplant, and occasionally on nearby plants. Females are very selective about their egg-laying sites. In the UK, most eggs are laid in short turf up to 4 cm tall, often next to patches of bare ground. This species overwinters as an egg and hatches in March. Like other skippers, larvae build small tent-like structures from leaf blades and silk to feed from. They enter the pupal stage after 14 to 15 weeks, at the base of their foodplant. Pupation lasts 10 to 14 days, and like most butterflies, males emerge first.
