''Anatrytone logan'', the Delaware skipper, is a North American

butterfly Butterflies are winged insects from the lepidopteran superfamily Papilionoidea, characterized by large, often brightly coloured wings that often fold together when at rest, and a conspicuous, fluttering flight. The oldest butterfly fossi ...

. It is a member of the subfamily

Hesperiinae Grass skippers or banded skippers are butterflies of the subfamily Hesperiinae, part of the skipper family, Hesperiidae. The subfamily was established by Pierre André Latreille in 1809. Description and distribution With over 2,000 described sp ...

, the grass skippers. This skipper ranges from the southern

Canadian Prairies The Canadian Prairies (usually referred to as simply the Prairies in Canada) is a region in Western Canada. It includes the Canadian portion of the Great Plains and the Prairie provinces, namely Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. These provin ...

and southern

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

through the midwestern and eastern United States.

Description

Both females and males are yellow orange with black borders and dark brown veins on their wings. The borders are broader on the front and back edges of the hindwing. "The underside is yellowish orange, lacking any markings except a narrow dark border on the forewing."Delaware Skipper.
Butterflies of Canada. The wingspan is 2.5 to 4.3 centimeters.''Anatrytone logan''.
Butterflies and Moths of North America.

Biology

This species lives in many types of moist habitat, such as marshes and residential landscaping. It is active most of the year, producing multiple broods from February to October in warmer regions, and generally a single brood during the summer in northern areas. Adults feed on the nectar of flowers, especially pink and white taxa such as

milkweeds ''Asclepias'' is a genus of herbaceous, perennial, flowering plants known as milkweeds, named for their latex, a milky substance containing cardiac glycosides termed cardenolides, exuded where cells are damaged. Most species are toxic to huma ...

, mountain mints, and

thistle Thistle is the common name of a group of flowering plants characterized by leaves with sharp spikes on the margins, mostly in the family Asteraceae. Prickles can also occur all over the planton the stem and on the flat parts of the leaves. T ...

s. The caterpillars feed on grasses such as

big bluestem ''Andropogon gerardi'', commonly known as big bluestem, is a species of tall grass native to much of the Great Plains and grassland regions of central and eastern North America. It is also known as tall bluestem, bluejoint, and turkeyfoot. Taxon ...

and

switchgrass ''Panicum virgatum'', commonly known as switchgrass, is a perennial warm season bunchgrass native to North America, where it occurs naturally from 55th parallel north, 55°N latitude in Canada southwards into the United States and Mexico. Switch ...

References

External links

*NatureServe. 2017
''Anatrytone logan''.
NatureServe Explorer Version 7.1. Accessed 16 August 2017. Butterflies of North America Hesperiini Butterflies described in 1863 Taxa named by William Henry Edwards Lepidoptera of the United States Lepidoptera of Canada {{Hesperiini-stub