| Mallow Skipper (Carcharodus alceae (Esper, 1780)) |
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Scientific name: Carcharodus alceae (Esper, 1780) Common name: Mallow Skipper French name: Grisette Order: Lepidoptera Suborder: Rhopalocera Family: Hesperiidae Subfamily: Pyrginae Wingspan: 23-34 mm Biotope: Flowered hills and slopes up to an altitude of 1500 m. Geographic area: North Africa. Southern and central Europe except Great Britain, Holland, northern Germany and Scandinavia. Temperate Asia. Flight time: April to September Number of generations : 2 (1 in altitude) Caterpillar: Lives in a shelter made up of leaves. Large black head with orange spots around the neck; greenish grey body mottled with back and white and with short white hairs. Host plant: Mallow (Malva), Marshmallow and Althaea. |
You can recognize skippers of the Carcharodus genus with the jagged margin of the hind wings and with the lack of well marked white spots on the upper side of the fore wings. The upper side of the Mallow Skipper's wings is mottled brown, dark brown and grey with hyaline dots on the hindwings. The underside of the wings is paler brown with similar hyaline dots on the fore wings. There are white or yellow dots on the hindwings. The Mallow Skipper overwinters as a caterpillar. There is a possible confusion with some species of the same genus which are found a little further south. Here is some information that I have found knowing that telling species apart is sometimes a difficult task. The upper side of the hind wings of the Marbled Skipper (Carcharodus lavatherae) shows two rows of well marked white spots . The Tufted Skipper (Carcharodus floccifera) has very dark brown fore wings' base and one white discal spot on the upper side of the hind wings. The pale submarginal spots on the under side of the hind wings are elongated and parallel to the veins. The Southern Marbled Skipper (Carcharodus baeticus) has the under side of the hind wings chequered with veins clearly lighter-coloured than the pale brown ground colour. It also shows white discal spots on the upper side of the hind wings. |
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The Mallow Skipper is, at this date, the only butterfly of the Hesperiidae family I have observed in my garden. |
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The Mallow Skippers are attracted to the Buddleja in my garden. |
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The marks on the underside of the wings are making an efficient camouflage among the dry July grasses. |
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I am not very experienced but I think that the lack of pure white markings on the upper side of the hind wings is a good indication to tell the Carcharodus alceae species apart. |
André Bon July 2016