Silver-spotted Skipper (Epargyreus clarus)

Silver-Spotted Skipper on Purple Coneflower

Both butterfly and the coneflower are past their prime, but still worthy of a few pixels, I think.


According to BugGuide,  Silver-Spotted Skippers range throughout southern Canada and most of the continental United States except the Great Basin and west Texas; northern Mexico.


Caterpillar Hosts: Many woody legumes including black locust (Robinia pseudacacia), honey locust (Gleditsia triacanthos) and false indigo (Amorpha species).


More information and photos are also available from Butterflies and Moths of North America.

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Silver-spotted Skipper (Epargyreus clarus)

Echinacea and Ice

 

                                                                                 Photo by Jo

Everything -- including the purple cone flowers that hadn't been deadheaded -- picked up a thin coating of ice and/or freezing fog over the past couple of days. Most of the wintry mix fell as sleet, so the trees and power lines did not get badly weighted down with ice. We would not have been able to navigate our road out, though.

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Echinacea and Ice