Lerodea eufala eufala
Eufala Skipper
In my garden, this is the grass skipper I see the least, after fiery and umber skippers, so it is always a bit of a nice surprise when it turns up. But overall, this is a skipper that is established over much of the New World, from the southern half of the U.S. to Argentina. Unlike most skippers, it seems to do best in developed areas, with gardens, nurseries, and parks being perfectly fine places for it. When in good shape, they are a handsome skipper, with various shades of brown, beige, and gray that go together nicely.
This Lerodea eufala, the eufala skipper, visited my garden in Long Beach. April 18, 2010.
Same eufala skipper as above. These are an unusual visitor here; in fact, this was the first I've ever seen in any garden I've had.
Close-up view of the same Lerodea eufala.
The eufala skipper. From the El Dorado Park Nature Center, October 21, 2008.
This eufala skipper was at the Boyce Thompson Arboretum, east of Phoenix, on Sept. 25, 2007.
William Henry Edwards was first to describe this skipper in 1869. The journal is Transactions of the American Entomological Society, published in Philadelphia.
From the Entomological News in 1921: Karl Coolidge describing the life cycle in detail.
John A. Comstock followed up in 1929 with a couple of illustrations, in "Studies in Pacific Coast Lepidoptera." Bulletin of the Southern California Academy of Sciences 28(2):29-30.
©Dennis Walker
