Meske’s Skipper

One last trip within the region occurred last weekend. Tis a sad time as the butterflies will slowly disappear and go into diapause until next season. A local example of a late season species is Leonard’s Skipper which emerges in late August – early September. Then, there are species with late season flights such as the rare (for North Carolina) Meske’s Skipper. Its northern range extends into North Carolina with the fall flight from late September through October. Barry Marts and I headed down to Weymouth Woods Sandhills Nature Preserve in Southern Pines in search of this skipper. Weymouth Woods is a unique window onto the longleaf pine forests that once covered millions of acres in the southeastern U.S. In five hours of searching spread across two days we found two individuals. Other more southern species (than our immediate area) also found included Gulf Fritillary (2), Clouded Skipper (67), Sleepy Orange (28), Fiery Skipper (51), Ocola Skipper (49), and abundant Cloudless Sulphurs. This trip was the last of our many, many great regional sorties. I’ll send out a year recap posting next month.

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