Every spring I seem to have the same problem—I see small brown skipper butterflies and can’t seem to identify them. Wikipedia notes that there are over 3500 species recognized worldwide, so I don’t feel too bad about my poor identification skills. I spotted this particular one during a recent trip to Meadowlark Botanical Gardens in Vienna, Virginia as it was feeding on what looks to be some variety of salvia flower—there are a lot of types of salvia flowers too.
As I looked through internet photos of possible matches for my skipper, I considered that it might be a Peck’s Skipper or possibly a Fiery Skipper, but none of them is a perfect match. I’m hoping that it turns out to be a Zabulon Skipper (Poanes zabulon). Why? More than anything else, I think “Zabulon” is a cool name.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Mike Powell 
It’s a beauty 😀 We only have a small number of skippers in the UK, some are very rare now but I found a couple of them on Box Hill just recently. Fascinating creatures!
They are small and generally less colorful than their more well-known counterparts, but I love them just as much.
Yes, tiny little beauties! I love their huge eyes and furry bodies 🙂