Monday, December 7, 2009

Long-tailed Skipper Life Cycle

 skipper for blog

The Long-tailed Skipper butterfly is a large skipper that is an attractive addition to every garden. The Long-tailed skipper is easily recognized because of the long “tails” that protrude from its wings. There are thousands of different skippers that live worldwide. Skippers are smaller than other commonly seen butterflies and many feed on grass. Skippers were given this name because of their appearance to skip as they fly.

flower for blog

The Long-tailed Skipper's caterpillars feed on plants in the bean family. One of their host plants is the Butterfly Pea plant which has beautiful purple flowers. They often lay they their eggs on bean plant in agricultural fields. Sadly it is thought of as a agricultural pest by bean growers along the southeastern U.S. I welcome the Long-tailed Skipper in my “Secret Garden” and enjoy taking photographs of this unique creature.

long tailed skipper eggs

A female Long-tailed Skipper deposited eggs on my butterfly pea plant while visiting. Long-tailed Skippers often lays their eggs in groups underneath leaves. They even will lay eggs on top of each other. Their eggs are round and cream colored. Inside the egg the caterpillar is developing. The tip of the eggs will turn a dark color when ready to hatch. The black area is the head of the caterpillar.

tiny caterpillar

The tiny caterpillars ecloses from the egg shell by chewing through the tip of the egg. The new caterpillars are yellow with black heads. They begin crawling around the plant and chewing slivers out of the leaves to construct their special hiding spot.

large nest for page skipper curled leaf for book

The Long-tailed Skipper caterpillar must hide from predators after hatching. Some of its enemies include wasps, birds, spiders, ants, dragon flies, and frogs. The caterpillar will choose a leaf and start working on creating a shelter to hide inside. It makes a shelter by chewing out a piece of the leaf and wrapping it around itself. The caterpillar hides in its shelter during the day, but eats at night when fewer predators are around. Long-tailed skipper caterpillars have earned the name “bean leafroller” because of this action.

skipper caterpillarbig caterpillar 

The tiny caterpillar won't stay small for long. Its skin becomes too tight and it will have to shed it off. The caterpillars appearance changes as it gets larger. Its body turns green with yellow stripes along the sides. The caterpillar's head is black with small red spots that look similar to “eyes”.

IMG_2689

The Long-tailed Skipper caterpillar's head will begins to turn dark red as it nears pupating. The caterpillar does not hang or attach itself to branch. Instead it hides in a leaf and makes its pupa inside. The brown pupa is covered in white powder that easily rubs off. Its pupa looks similar to the droppings from a frog.

skipper wings open

The butterfly stays in the pupa for about 10 days before emerging. The Long-tailed skipper butterfly has long “tails” and its antennas are hooked at the ends. When the skipper opens its wings, its colorful scales can be seen. The scales are a bluish green and look like fuzz growing on the skipper's butterfly. These scales are easily removed when your finger is rubbed across them. Its long “tail”, colorful scales, and quick flight make this butterfly attractive and easy to recognize.

5 comments:

  1. Thank you for helping me identify whats been eating my bean plants. I live in south Florida and have a garden where i grow mostly tomatoes, peppers, beans, and herbs. I have become quite familiar with many species of caterpillars but this is the first year i have seen these little guys. We have a love hate relationship while i know they pollinate my fruiting plants when they become butterflies they destroy my beans leaves while they are growing. I hand pick them and move them into nearby shrubs.

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    Replies
    1. Do they eat you beans or just the leaf? If they just eat you leafs, I see no harm done to you harvest. Perhaps you can grove a few bean plants or butterfly peas that you can transfer those caterpillars.

      I fear that you trasfering them to any shrubs you might starve them to death if the caterpillars don't find themselves back to the bean plants.

      By the way what kind of beans have you been planting and they been eating. I like to see somebof them stay in my yard.

      I might be wrong but butterfly peas maybe perennial or self seeding. I just like to see this guys in my garden.

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    2. Grow some extra bean plants away from the garden you plan to eat. When you see caterpillars in your garden, transfer them to your extra bean plants. Make sure you grow enough. That way you both be happy. Is a compromised I have done many times.

      This caterpillars will not eat any shrub you put them in. The fact is that some will find their way back to your bean plants.

      Another thing you may want to examine is how early are you finding them in your crop. Do they do a lot damage?

      Grow your extra beans or other host plants a week or so after you plant your arable crop. Hopefully she will not lay eggs in both then you have no alternative

      You can always bring all your caterpillar to my garden.

      Or you might decide to rear the caterpillars in a transparent container about the size of a shoe box. Everday You cut some leaf from your garden and feed them in your rearing box. This way you chose what they eat, not them

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  2. Anonymous, this is a compromise with the caterpillar: Grow some bean plants away from your crop you plant to eat. When you see the caterpillar on you bean crop, transfer them to your extra bean plants. That way you will both be happy.

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  3. I sure wish the comment from the kind hearted responder about moving them to a different plant wasn't so long ago since it's so unlikely for them to see my comment but maybe this may help someone in the future. If you want to let these little guys live they have to have access to plants that are their actual host plants. Luckily there's a number of plants that these particular skippers can eat. As the author said these survive on legumes. We raise butterflies indoors and ours love the weed Japanese Clover and its kin. Those are those common "weeds" that leave those annoying little cresent shaped green seeds all over your socks and pant legs if you walk through a patch of them. Easily found for free... especially if you don't *want* to find them lol

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