''Erynnis horatius'', commonly known as Horace's duskywing, is a species of

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 ...

in the family

Hesperiidae Skippers are a group of butterflies placed in the family Hesperiidae within the order Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies). They were previously placed in a separate superfamily, Hesperioidea, but have since been placed in the superfamily Papilion ...

. It is found in the United States from

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

, and west to eastern

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state, state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Dakota people, Dakota Sioux ...

, the

Gulf Coast The Gulf Coast of the United States, also known as the Gulf South or the South Coast, is the coastline along the Southern United States where they meet the Gulf of Mexico. The coastal states that have a shoreline on the Gulf of Mexico are Tex ...

, south-eastern

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

, north-eastern

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

, and

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

. It is listed as a species of special concern in the US state of

Connecticut Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...

."Connecticut's Endangered, Threatened and Special Concern Species 2015"
State of Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Bureau of Natural Resources. Retrieved January 27, 2018. Fringes are brown. Upperside of male forewing is dark brown with little contrast and no white overscaling. Upperside of female forewing is light brown with a contrasting pattern and large transparent spots. Underside of hindwing is usually without two spots below the apex. The male has a costal fold containing yellow scent scales; the female has a patch of scent scales on the 7th abdominal segment. The

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the opposite wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingsp ...

is 36–49 mm. There are two generations in the north, with adults on the wing from April to September; there are three generations in the deep south and Texas, with adults on the wing from January to November. Adults prefer open woodlands and edges, clearings, fence rows, wooded swamps, power-line right-of-ways, open fields and roadsides. Caterpillars are hosted by various oak species such as willow oak (''

Quercus phellos ''Quercus phellos'', the willow oak, is a North American species of a deciduous tree in the red oak group of oaks. It is native to the south-central and eastern United States. Description It is a medium-sized tree growing to tall (exceptiona ...

''), northern red oak ('' Q. velutina''), scrub oak ('' Q. ilicifolia''), water oak (''

Q. nigra Q, or q, is the seventeenth letter of the English alphabet. Q may also refer to: People * Q, pseudonym of Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, the Cornish writer * Q, pseudonym used by the originator of QAnon, an American far-right conspiracy theory * Q ...

''), post oak ('' Q. stellata''), and live oak ('' Q. virginiana''). Adults consume nectar from flowers up to about above ground level, including those of

dogbane Dogbane, dog-bane (plant), bane, dog's bane, and other variations, some of them regional and some transient, are names for certain plants that are reputed to kill or repel dogs; "Bane (plant), bane" originally meant "slayer", and was later appli ...

, buttonbush, sneezeweed,

goldenrod Goldenrod is a common name for many species of flowering plants in the sunflower family, Asteraceae, commonly in reference to the genus ''Solidago''. Several genera, such as ''Euthamia'', were formerly included in a broader concept of the genu ...

peppermint Peppermint (''Mentha'' × ''piperita'') is a Hybrid (biology), hybrid species of Mentha, mint, a cross between Mentha aquatica, watermint and spearmint. Indigenous to Europe and the Middle East, the plant is now widely spread and cultivated in m ...

, boneset, and

winter cress ''Barbarea'' (winter cress or yellow rocket) is a genus of about 22 species of flowering plants in the family Brassicaceae, native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere, with the highest species diversity in southern Europe and southwes ...

References

External links

''Erynnis horatius'' - Horace's Duskywing
BugGuide
''Erynnis horatius''
Butterflies and Moths of North America
Horace's Duskywing
, Massachusetts Butterfly Club
Horace's Duskywing
Butterflies of Canada Erynnis Butterflies described in 1870 Butterflies of North America Taxa named by Samuel Hubbard Scudder Lepidoptera of the United States {{Pyrginae-stub