E-Fauna BC Home

Polites themistocles Scudder, 1872
Tawny-Edged Skipper
Family: Hesperiidae (Skippers)
Species account authors: Crispin Guppy and Jon Shepard.
Extracted from Butterflies of British Columbia.
Introduction to the Lepidoptera of BC
Introduction to the Butterflies of BC
The Families of Lepidoptera of BC

Photograph

© Jacy (JC) Lucier     (Photo ID #13836)

Map

Click on map to view a larger version of this map.
Distribution of Polites themistocles in British Columbia.
(Click on the map to view a larger version.)
Source: Butterflies of British Columbia by Crispin Guppy and Jon Shepard © Royal BC Museum

Species Information


Adult

The Tawny-edged Skipper is easy to identify in BC; it is the only skipper in which the dorsal hindwing is a solid dark khaki colour in both sexes. This, combined with the golden tan of the basal half of the dorsal forewing of all males and some females, distinguishes this species. Females can be confused with Euphyes vestris in BC.

Immature Stages

Scudder (1889b) described the egg and larva. The egg is pale, pea green. The mature larval head is chocolate brown with a dark median line and paler lateral lines. The body of the larva is pale green mottled with dark green areas and with a dark green dorsal line.

Subspecies

American writers have either ignored (Miller and Brown 1981) or misplaced (Ferris 1989) the subspecies of the Tawny-edged Skipper described from BC: P.t. turneri Freeman, 1944 (TL: Jesmond, BC). Most BC and adjacent northeastern WA populations are disjunct from the rest of the range of the Tawny-edged Skipper, and Freeman characterized subspecies turneri as darker than the nominate subspecies. Populations in the Rocky Mountain Trench are tentatively assigned to the nominate subspecies (TL: "Amerique meridionale").

Genus Description


The name Polites is from Polites, a son of Priam of Troy and Hecuba. Polites was a swift runner, and perhaps Scudder meant that members of the genus were swift fliers.

The genus Polites is Nearctic, occurring from northern Mexico to southern Canada. The 12 species (MacNeill 1993) are well represented in British Columbia, where six species occur. A seventh species, Polites mardon (W.H. Edwards, 1881), occurs just south, in the Puget Trough of Washington, and is one of the few possible species that did not colonize Vancouver Island.

Biology


The Tawny-edged Skipper flies from early June to late July in a single generation. The literature is contradictory regarding its larval foodplant. Shapiro (1966) states that the foodplant is the grass genus Panicum, but Shapiro (1974b) says that the foodplant is unknown. If Panicum is the correct foodplant, Panicum occidentale is probably the species used in BC.

Habitat


The Tawny-edged Skipper is known from Prince George south and east across the Southern Interior and the Kootenays. It is usually found in moist grass areas around small lakes or springs in dry grassland habitat, which are frequently impacted by cattle grazing.

Distribution

Distribution

Known from the disjunct BC and WA populations and then east from AB to NS and south to AZ and FL.

Status Information

Scientific NameOrigin StatusProvincial StatusBC List
(Red Blue List)		COSEWIC
Polites themistoclesNativeS5YellowNot Listed
Polites themistocles themistoclesNativeS3BlueNot Listed
Polites themistocles turneriNativeS5YellowNot Listed



BC Ministry of Environment: BC Species and Ecosystems Explorer--the authoritative source for conservation information in British Columbia.

Additional Range and Status Information Links

Atlas of North Dakota Butterflies

General References

Google Scholar Search

© 2014 E-Fauna BC  Contact us