Best time to see: mid Jul to end Aug

Key facts

Small orange-brown skipper of rough grassland

Habitat: rough, tall grassland, including roadside embankments

Widely distributed throughout southern England and Wales

Recognition

Orange-brown upperwings with black veins and edges; tips of clubbed antennae are black; wingspan 27–30 mm

Spend long periods perched with wings apart, interspersed with short, rapid flights from flower to flower

Lifecycle

Lays a row of pale yellow eggs in stems of rough grasses

Pale green caterpillars hibernate together, dispersing in spring to live alone in rolled grass stems

Turns into a chrysalis in May before emerging in July as an adult butterfly