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Species
Spotlight

Giant Silk
Moth Survey

BROAD-WINGED SKIPPER (Poanes viator)

Identification
Male is dark above with orange spots on the forewing and hindwing. Female is similar above but has smaller, whitish spots on forewing. Both are orange-brown below with a long, pale ray that extends out from the wing base, crossed by a variable band of yellowish spots (this gives the appearance of a cross but is not as prominent as in the Mulberry Wing). Forewing is rounded. Male does not have a stigma.

Massachusetts Butterfly Club photographs

Kaufman's Butterflies of North America, page 332
Glassberg's Butterflies Through Binoculars, plate 65

Habitat in Vermont
Sedge wetlands or Phragmites.

Host Plant
Carex sedges (i.e. Hairy sedge, Carex lacustrus) for inland populations; coastal populations feed on Giant Reed (Phragmites sp.), Wild Rice (Zizania sp.), and Marsh Millet (Zizaniopsis miliacea).

Adult Food Preferences
Nectar from Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata), Purple Loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria), and Blue Vervain (Verbena hastata) for inland populations.

U.S. Distribution

VBS Distribution


VBS Flight Period


Notes
As noted Vermont lepidopterist Scott Griggs puts it: “You have to get your feet wet to find Broad-winged Skipper.” So get into a sedge wetland and start looking for a relatively
large grass skipper. It is somewhat “loopy” in flight. And the hind wing mark is distinctive (yet sometimes diffuse).

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