Long-tailed skipper

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Long-tailed skipper

Secure  (NatureServe)[1]
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Hesperiidae
Genus: Urbanus
Species:
U. proteus
Binomial name
Urbanus proteus

The long-tailed skipper (Urbanus proteus) is a

spread-winged skipper butterfly found throughout tropical and subtropical South America, south to Argentina and north into the eastern United States and southern Ontario.[2]
It cannot live in areas with prolonged frost. It is a showy butterfly, with wings of light brown tinted with iridescent blue, and two long tails extending from the hindwings. The robust body is light blue dorsally. It has a large head, prominent eyes, and a wingspan between 4.5 and 6 centimeters.

Life cycle

It lays white or yellow eggs, singly or in small clusters, which hatch into a caterpillar with a yellowish body and large, dark head. After two to three weeks, the caterpillar forms a pupa. Its pupa is contained in a rolled leaf and covered in fine bluish hairs. The pupa stage may last from one to three weeks, after which the adult emerges.[3]

The caterpillar of this skipper is a common pest of

nuclear polyhedrosis virus killed up to 50% of the larvae.[3]

Sub-species

U. p. domingo flies in the Bahamas and throughout the West Indies, but it is only weakly differentiated from the nominate form, chiefly by its reduced white markings.[4]

References

  1. ^ "NatureServe Explorer 2.0 Urbanus proteus Long-tailed Skipper". explorer.natureserve.org. Retrieved 29 September 2020.
  2. ^ "Urbanus proteus". Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Retrieved 19 October 2021.
  3. ^
    ISBN 978-0-12-158861-8
    .
  4. ISBN 978-87-88757-85-9
    , pp. 117-119
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