Sickle-winged Skipper, Eantis tamenund, life history
Sickle-winged Skipper (Eantis tamenund) Life History


Egg, 9-26-10

Pre-emergent; head visible, 9-29-10
     

Fresh caterpillar, 9-30-10

Second instar, black face, 10-3-10
      

10-9-10
     

Pre-molt, 10-11-10
     

New instar, head now green, 10-12-10
     

10-18-10
     

Mature caterpillar, 10-24-10
     

Fresh chrysalis, 10-26-10
     

Chrysalis, 10-30-10
     

Fresh Sickle-winged Skipper, 11-5-10
 

A yellow dot on a 6" seedling of Lime Prickly-Ash, Zanthoxylum fagara, proved to be a butterfly egg, and I was soon raising a Sickle-winged Skipper caterpillar. As the pictures to the right show, the caterpillar's head was clearly visible in the egg a day before it emerged. The yellowish face soon became black, and then olive as the caterpillar matured.

Like many skippers, the caterpillar sewed several leaves together to make a shelter. It would stay in a given shelter until I decided the leaves needed to be discarded because they were too deteriorated and in danger of becoming moldy. It would then form a new shelter on the fresh branches I provided.

The caterpillar took 25 days to pupate; the adult emerged 11 days later.

Sickle-winged Skipper Page