Gene Schepker
Dateline: Sept 4, 2012
Dateline: Sept 4, 2012
The Dion Skipper is now out and about. Bud Webster in the Raleigh area sent me this image of the Dion and I got it right away this time. Last year he sent me nearly the same photo and I didn't know this skipper. I had him send it to Richard Stickney who identified it immediately as a Dion. It was a lot darker than the photos from Kaufman's and Glassberg's respective Field Guides. They show only the orange ventral hind wing with the two rays of lighter orange.
Last week I asked Brian Bockhahn, who sees Dions in Rockingham County frequently, how come Bud's photos were so dark and the books show them orange. He didn't know but had only seen orange Dions. When all else fails, it is time to read the book and not just look at the pictures. I noticed in the text in Cech's book, Butterflies of the East Coast, that the "dark southern individuals" were once considered a separate subspecies (alabamae). Mystery solved!
This time when he sent the darker version of the Dion, I was ready. Maybe I'll someday find one myself. Enjoy Bud's image of the Dion Skipper which I believe to be Euphyes dion (alabamae)!
The Dion is a large skipper with a "1.4 inch wingspan" and operates all along the east coast from NY to Northern Florida and swings westward along the Gulf coast. It covers a wide area but is not common anywhere. If the Dion male opens up and shows its dorsal, it has a very distinct long black stigma with a hook on the end that dissects an orange field across the front wing diagonally, check your field guide. There is a large inland pocket of Dions shown around the Raleigh area! Look for them in wet freshwater edges, wet meadows, swamps, marshes and roadside ditches where Sedges, Pickerelweed, etc grow.
Last week I asked Brian Bockhahn, who sees Dions in Rockingham County frequently, how come Bud's photos were so dark and the books show them orange. He didn't know but had only seen orange Dions. When all else fails, it is time to read the book and not just look at the pictures. I noticed in the text in Cech's book, Butterflies of the East Coast, that the "dark southern individuals" were once considered a separate subspecies (alabamae). Mystery solved!
This time when he sent the darker version of the Dion, I was ready. Maybe I'll someday find one myself. Enjoy Bud's image of the Dion Skipper which I believe to be Euphyes dion (alabamae)!
The Dion is a large skipper with a "1.4 inch wingspan" and operates all along the east coast from NY to Northern Florida and swings westward along the Gulf coast. It covers a wide area but is not common anywhere. If the Dion male opens up and shows its dorsal, it has a very distinct long black stigma with a hook on the end that dissects an orange field across the front wing diagonally, check your field guide. There is a large inland pocket of Dions shown around the Raleigh area! Look for them in wet freshwater edges, wet meadows, swamps, marshes and roadside ditches where Sedges, Pickerelweed, etc grow.
Harry LeGrand explained to me that the male is a orange-brown field color and the female a more red-brick color on the ventral hind wing! The image we posted is probably a female. If anyone wants to send light colored photos of Dions, give me location and date of photo please!
Gene Schepker
geneschepker@gmail.com
geneschepker@gmail.com
