[TN-Butterflies] Polk County has an Interesting Visitor

  • From: Julius Basham <juliusbasham@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: TN Butterflies <TN-Butterflies@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Sun, 29 Aug 2010 10:53:53 -0400

When you walk up to a patch of thistles in Tennessee you don't really expect to see a Skipper about three times bigger than all the other Skippers. But that's exactly what we saw yesterday near Paddy Bridge.
This wandering Brazilian Skipper was at least 2 miles from the nearest patch of Cana, (which it so dearly loves) and seemed quite happy to nectar on this fall thistle.
Here it is shown with a Clouded Skipper for size comparison. The Clouded is a fairly large Skipper, as Skippers go, but look at the size of the Brazilian.  He's a big dog.



He was quite skittish at first, and would be off with a mighty whirring of wings when approached, but he gradually became accustomed to human presence and calmed down a bit.



Brazilians are North America's largest grass Skipper and are kind of a cinnamony brown with three or four translucent moonmarks on the Ventral hindwing.  They also have variable translucent marks on the forewing that usually cannot be seen due to the way they hold their wings most of the time.
Their body shape is similar to our Ocola Skipper.



They have an extremely long haustellum, and seem to be able to take nectar from blossoms on the far side of the flower that they are perched upon.



No one seems to know for sure if the migrate this far north, or are occasional passengers with northbound nursery shipments of Cana.  They certainly are strong fliers so it wouldn't surprise me to find out that both methods of dispersal are true.
Whatever the case, it has been at least five years since we have seen an individual of this species in Polk County, so it's nice, to again find, one of these rare visitors to Tennessee.

At the same location we found an interesting seed pod that looks like a Blackberry.
It is evidently called Blackberry Lily, because of these seeds, and has a gorgeous orange Tiger Lily looking flower earlier in the year.
It is a non-native and is originally from China.



The base of the plant gives away it's membership in the Iris Family.



Julius Basham
Chattanooga, Tennessee
























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