RARE DUKE'S SKIPPER BUTTERFLIES FOUND FLUTTERING IN ILLINOIS

I told him they were here.

The cool weather delays the butterfly activity until mid-morning. A great spangled fritillary draws my attention to a thistle. A Leonard's skipper (left) nectars on the same plant, and another basks on a leaf nearby.

The prominent row of spots on the brick red underside of the hind wing makes the Leonard's easy to identify. (I've drawn all the subjects twice life-size in my illustration.)

I told Jim Wiker we have Leonard's every year here at our rural property we call Whispering Hills. Ever since I said that I've been afraid this year would break the trend.

I met Jim two weeks ago when I called him about the Illinois records of the Appalachian eyed brown butterfly. A friend of mine and I had found four in a wetland area near Harrisburg. Jim does butterfly work with Dr. Tim Cashett of the Illinois State Museum in Springfield.

Jim told me to look for Leonard's skippers, because they should occur in Southern Illinois but he's never found one. The single brood flies in late August and through September in Illinois.

Leonard's skippers commonly occur in the sand prairies in central Illinois and in scattered locations in the northern part of the state. The only record in Southern Illinois is an old one from near Murphysboro.

Skippers are named for their rapid skipping flight. True skippers have proportionately larger bodies and smaller wings than the other butterflies.

As with most butterflies, the males emerge first. The male skippers have a black stigma (mark) on the top of their fore wing. The females have a shorter thicker abdomen.

When I first talked to Jim, I told him about the new butterflies I had seen this year. At the mention of a Dion skipper I had seen the day before, he said it was probably a Duke's skipper and immediately started asking questions. He made a special trip down the next day to see it.

I was afraid he'd make the four-hour trip and then I'd be wrong; skippers are complicated, especially for a novice. We walked from his truck to a patch of tall ironweed and found a male Duke's visiting the purple flowers.

Duke's skippers are found in wet woods with sedges and come out to feed at flowers. One was collected near Karnak in 1926. They were found at Pine Hills in 1966 and 1969, and twice more there by Jim.

I have found the third location ever in Illinois!

I decide to go back to the wetland area and check the Duke's population now. Today each patch of mist flowers along the lane has three or four Duke's (right) nectaring on the deep lavender flower clusters.

The male Duke's is entirely sooty black, and the female is similar with two or three spots on the fore wing. Both are pale brown on the ventral surface of the hind wing with a pale yellow streak crossing it.

I walk the lane counting the skippers. Jim and I only found six of them two weeks ago, and today I find at least 20.

I've definitely learned not to keep any butterfly discovery to myself ... it just might be a rarity.

Kathy Phelps is a freelance nature writer and illustrator who resides in Harrisburg, Ill.