Looks like a Zabulon to me. The females are quite different and just as striking.

Sandy

Yup, we have quite a few of those here. Very pretty little skipper (pretty photos too!) The males tend to be more prominent due to their coloring and behavior (they like to perch about eye height and fly out at any movement).

Your ID skills never cease to amaze me!

-Elisabeth

That's a beauty, MissSherry! I have very few Skippers this year....so far. Last year, thee big butterflies were gone and the little ones were numerous, skippers, hairstreaks, and blues. This year is vice versa. Weird, huh?

I mostly see Sachems and Fieries as well. I did have a Nysa Roadsidw Skipper last year that spend the summer in the garden. They are very small skippers, but distinctly colored.

Susan

Here is a link that might be useful: Nysa Roadside Skipper

Thanks all! The skippers are really interesting, even though they're common and not usually brightly colored. That's why this little skipper interested me so much - he shone in the shade!

Susan, that nysa roadside skipper is interesting, too. Occasionally, lace-winged roadside skippers visit here. I got this picture of one a few years ago-

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Sherry

That's a pretty little thing, MissSherry! I don't think we get those in Oklahoma. You deep South folks get a ton more butterfly species than we do. I do find the Skippers interesting, especially when I see one outside the normal Skipper population that I usually get.

One that I just love and I only see them in spring - late spring - is the Funereal Duskywing. They just glisten in the bright sun.

Susan

Today there was at least one fiery skipper on every stoke's aster in my garden - stoke's asters are wonderful nectar plants! This male spicebush swallowtail was flirting furiously with the female, but she wouldn't take her proboscis out of the stokes aster -

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I'm still finding long-tailed skippers on desmodium. One little caterpillar was on a branch that I kept bumping into, so I took it in to raise myself. I got its picture -

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One of my giant swallowtails has made its chrysalis, one is pupating, and several others are real big and sure to pupate soon. There are still lots of smaller ones, still eating. All the gulf frits but one have emerged, about half females and half males. Hopefully, I'll find more gulf frit cats on my passionvines. We already need more rain - in this summer heat, the soil dries up quickly!

Sherry

You sound busy busy busy, Sherry! You sure do get a nice variety of butterflies! Stokes' aster is one kind of plant that I don't have here. So do they bloom for a longer period than other asters? My New England asters don't seem to bloom for very long. Do Pearl Crescent cats use them? I've never found any on any of my NE asters, but I've never looked all that well either.

I don't know if you remember about my deliberately getting rid of my passionvine last year after I realized how much it was spreading, but I didn't want to be totally without any. So I traded with someone and got P. 'Incense', which I intend to keep in a big pot. I even have it sitting up on concrete blocks. Just today I got my 'Lady Margaret' that I ordered from Brushwood Nursery and it looks so nice and healthy. It's not cold hardy in my zone 6, but after that ordeal that I had with that P. incarnata last year, I'm even afraid to plant this one in the ground. I wonder if there's a name for passionvine phobia. Ha!
Cathy