Chequered skipper
The chequered skipper is a small butterfly with dark brown wings covered in golden-orange spots, like a chequered pattern. It darts about in sunny woodland clearings and along forest paths. It especially likes blue woodland flowers.
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Fun facts
It died out in England in 1976, but it still lives in western Scotland.
In 2018, people brought chequered skippers back to a forest in England to help them return.
In Scotland it was only discovered in 1939.
The boys guard their own patch and sit on a favourite perch, watching for passing girls.
In North America it is called the arctic skipper, but it does not actually live in the Arctic.
Most asked questions about Chequered skipper
?Where can I see a chequered skipper?
In damp woodland clearings and along forest paths, for example in western Scotland.
?How big is the chequered skipper?
Its wings are about 2.9 to 3.1 centimetres from tip to tip.
?Why did the chequered skipper disappear from England?
Scientists think it was because people changed the way they looked after the woods.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Carterocephalus palaemon
- Group
- Butterflies
- Family
- Hesperiidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Hesperiidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia, North America
- Also known as
- Arctic skipper
Where the facts come from
- Carterocephalus palaemon (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Haeferl. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at hello@bugwiki.app and we will fix it.
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