[TN-Butterflies] Streamlined Dusky Wing

From: Julius Basham <juliusbasham@xxxxxxxxx>
To: TN Butterflies <TN-Butterflies@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 26 Jul 2010 10:21:06 -0400

The time is right for the main hatch of Tennessee Zaruccos to be zinging around from now 'til September. There is a spring hatch in our State,
but in very diminished numbers.
This little guy was found on the edge of a hilly, untended, pasture with sandstone seeping into a moist ditch.
The classic field marks for a male Zarucco's dorsal topside are:

1. The basal forewing will be quite uniformly dark, in fact the entire topside is fairly dark with no pronounced markings
2. There is virtually no gray overscaling on the forewing. The Wild Indigo typically has lots, and the Horace's has a little, but the Zarucco
has none. (I have seen a few photos of Zaruccos, ID'd by the experts, that show a tiny bit of gray overscaling. But hey,
they're Skippers, they're supposed to be difficult.)
3. The brown forearm patch stays a brown tan color all the way up to the leading edge of the forewing. The Wild Indigo forearm patch is often
two-toned with gray up near the leading edge and tan below.
4. The hyaline (wrist) spots are usually very small, or just plain missing on the male Zarucco, (on the one below you can see two spots on the left wing,
and just barely make out three on the right)
5. Forewings narrow, long and pointy, hindwings quite triangular. (a very difficult characteristic to discern most of the time)
6. Forewing fringes brown, hindwing fringes usually a little more buffy or gray.
7. Gray neck area.
8. White eyeline is spotty or absent.
9. If you're trying to separate a Zarucco from Horace's look for the long leg hair plumes on the Zarucco.

Underneath will be fairly uniformly brown. Sometimes the hindwing and forewing will have a faint row of dots running along the border.
But not the two strong dot rows found on the other Duskywing species.
The photo below shows the broken white eyeline, and the large gray neck area.

All brown, all the time. No gray overscaling.

This underwing shot below, gives you an idea of why James A. Scott called this bug a Streamlined Dusky Wing. He looks like he could do pretty good
in a wind tunnel test. Notice the narrow forewing and the triangular hindwing. Also notice that there is often a tiny bit of gray overscaling on the underside
forewing, out near the tip.
This individual is a very typical, Tennessee, male Zarucco Duskywing.
The female is a whole other story.

The second brood of Golden-bandeds popped out about a week ago, in Eastern Tennessee.

Female Black

Photos taken in Polk County, Tennessee on July 25, 2010.

[TN-Butterflies] Streamlined Dusky Wing

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