Here is the identification description of Woodland Skippers from the pocket guide Butterflies of Lane County: “Above, orange to orange-yellow with blackish-brown toothed border that has inward dark projections between veins. There is a long dark streak running diagonally across the FW from the base to the somewhat rounded wing tip, darker in males due to the black stigma which forms the inner half of it. Below, pale tan to dark brown with a chunky yellow band of spots that are usually squarer and larger than in most tawny grass skippers.” If you find that confusing, well, I do too. iNaturalist identified this as a woodland skipper and I saw some on the annual butterfly count at the arboretum in July hosted by the Eugene-Springfield chapter of the North American Butterfly Association (NABA). I am still a novice and I find this one a little tricky to identify.
Anyway, it was fun to watch it zip around from flower to flower and I love the orange pumpkin color of the underside and fuzzy body of this butterfly. One was very patient and tolerant of my presence and I was able to take a couple of close up photos which captured its long proboscis coiled up! Check out the last photo below.
Art Shapiro’s Butterfly Site says that its host plants “are (largely undetermined) perennial grasses.” The fact that its host plant of perennial grasses are “largely undetermined” reminds me that there is so much life passing in front of my eyes everyday that still contains so much mystery and wonder. For instance, I wonder why they call them woodland skippers as a common name when their habitat is open grassy areas and their host plants are grasses?
I went down the quarry road and found that there was still some pennyroyal blooming around the seeps. There are some skippers fluttering around there, and I also saw a few up in the quarry where the vinegar weed is blooming.
Lastly, I can’t imagine finding one of their eggs which they lay singly or one of their caterpillars in the sea of grass out at the arboretum. Instead of saying “a needle in a haystack”, maybe nature nerds should express something as hard to find by saying, “That would be like finding a woodland skipper egg in a grassy meadow!” Thanks for reading. See you out there.
Sources
Björklund, Neil. “Woodland Skipper | ButterfliesofOregon.” Butterflies of Oregon, 2018, https://www.butterfliesoforegon.com/ochlodes-sylvanoides. Accessed 18 Aug. 2026.
Butterflies of Lane County pocket guide by the Eugene-Springfield NABA Chapter compiled by Marta Makarushka.
