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Posts Tagged ‘Polites peckius’

Zabulon Skipper butterfly (?)

Posted in Butterflies, Insects, Nature, Photography, Summer, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , , on August 13, 2025| 2 Comments »

It is tough to get a proper exposure during the harsh midday sunlight—all too often the image will be overexposed. I sometimes will deliberately compensate by underexposing the subject, which has the effect of significantly darkening the background of the image. This doesn’t always work, but I like the dramatic result that I got when I photographed this little skipper butterfly during a visit earlier this week to Huntley Meadows Park.

As I have noted in multiple post over the years, skipper butterflies are really tough to identify. I looked over lots of images on-line and have concluded that this might be a Zabulon Skipper butterfly (Poanes zabulon) or possibly a Peck’s Skipper butterfly (Polites peckius).

Why did I go with “Zabulon” in the title of this post rather than “Peck’s?” The answer is quite simple is not a scientific determination—I think the name “Zabulon” is a lot cooler than “Peck’s.”

Zabulon Skipper

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Skipper in September

Posted in Autumn, Butterflies, Insects, Nature, Photography, plants, Summer, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , on September 17, 2024| 2 Comments »

Recently I have featured numerous large, beautiful butterflies feeding on blooming plants, especially thistles. Today, I decided to turn the spotlight to the smaller, more nondescript butterflies, commonly referred to as skippers, that have been equally active and visible in recent weeks.

According to Wikipedia, there are more than 3500 species of skipper butterflies in the world and many of the species are visually similar in appearance. For that reason, I am especially cautious in trying to identify one of these small butterflies. Sometimes I will request assistance in identifying specimens in one of many Facebook groups to which I belong. I have learned the “secret” to getting a response—if I make a misidentification, some experts who might not help me with an identification will feel compelled to correct me.

I spotted the little beauty in the photo below last week while I was exploring a patch of flowers at Jackson Miles Abbott Wetland Refuge. It might be a Peck’s Skipper (Polites peckius), but to me it looks a bit more like a Zabulon Skipper (Poanes zabulon). Whatever the case, I like the way that I was able to capture the butterfly in action, sipping nectar with its proboscis fully extended.

Peck's Skipper

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Skipper butterfly and flower

Posted in Butterflies, Flowers, Insects, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on August 16, 2018| 7 Comments »

I can’t identify this flower and I am not certain what kind of skipper butterfly this is, but the two of them sure did combine well in this image that I captured this past weekend at Meadowlark Botanical Gardens. (I’m leaning towards this being a Peck’s Skipper (Polites peckius), but there are so many different kinds of skippers that it’s hard to be sure.)

In many ways this is the kind of image that I aspire to capture. The subject is active, engaged in probing the flower with its extended proboscis, rather than in a static pose. Of equal importance, the image has an artistic feel, a kind of beauty in its composition and colors. There are so many uncontrollable elements in nature that there is no way to guarantee results like this, but it is sure is nice when it happens.

UPDATE: Helpful folks on Facebook and readers of this blog have helped to identify the butterfly as a Zabulon Skipper (Poanes zabulon) and the flower as an Obedient Plant (Physostegia virginiana). Thanks, Drew and Molly.

skipper and flower

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

 

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Skipper in October

Posted in Butterflies, Flowers, Gardening, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , , , , on October 10, 2014| 9 Comments »

It’s a gray and gloomy day with intermittent rain—I feed the need for some color. This little skipper butterfly was busily at work last week on some very colorful flowers and I was able to catch him in action with his proboscis extended.

I am not sure what kind of skipper this is (there are more than 3500 species of skippers worldwide), but it looks a little like one that a reader identified for me as a Peck’s Skipper (Polites peckius). I must confess, though, that many skippers look very similar to me, so my identification is very tentative.

Capturing the butterfly with my macro lens was not too much of a problem, but I had a real problem in processing these shots because of some super bright highlights coming of the yellow flowers. I ended up darkening the highlights and desaturating the color in order to restore some detail to those flowers. I am not sure if I am happy with the results and might choose to process them differently another time. (The RAW images are still intact.)

skipper2_oct_blogskipper1_oct_blog

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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