Interesting Facts
Common Names
Common Names in English:
Southern Marbled Skipper
Description
Family Hesperiidae
'The Hesperiidae are members
of the Superfamily
Hesperioidea. Worldwide in distribution, skippers are richest in the tropics. More than 3,500 species are described, with approximately 275 in North America, many of which are found only in Arizona and Texas. Most skippers are small to medium, usually orange, brown, black, white, or gray. A few have iridescent
colors. Skippers have large eyes, short antennae (often with hooked
clubs), stout bodies, and three pairs of walking legs
. Their flight is often rapid, making wing
movement appear blurred. Adults
of most species have long probicscises and feed
on floral
nectar, but some also take up nutrients
from bird droppings. Males have scent scales
found in modified forewing
patches. Males of most species locate mates by perching
(grass
and giant-skippers), though some patrol, especially in the open-winged skippers. Globular
eggs
are laid singly.
'[1]
Habitat
Biome: Terrestrial [2].
Ecology:
The Southern Marbled
skipper occurs on dry, sparse vegetation, in
dunes, in dry, grassy places, scrubland and on rocky slopes
. Foodplants
are various horehounds, including Horehound (Marrubium
vulgare), Black Horehound (Ballota
nigra foetida) and Ballota
spp.
The female lays
its eggs
one by one on the leaves and
shoots
of the small foodplant. The small caterpillars live hidden
in a spun leaf. The older, larger caterpillars spin two neighbouring
leaves together to make a safe
shelter
. When they are fully-grown,
the caterpillars go down
to the base
of the foodplant and spin a
few dried leaves together in which to pupate. The species was not
seen in the Alps in the last 40 years where it probably had just
one generation a year, while in Spain there are two or three generations
a year. It hibernates as a caterpillar. Habitats
: coastal sand-dunes
and sand
beaches (33%), dry siliceous
grasslands (33%), screes (33%).
[2].
List of Habitats:
- 6 Rocky areas (eg. inland cliffs , mountain peaks)
- 13 Marine Coastal/Supratidal
- 13.3 Marine Coastal/Supratidal - Coastal Sand Dunes [more info]
Taxonomy
- Domain:
Eukaryota
(
)
- Whittaker & Margulis,1978
- eukaryotes
- Kingdom:
Animalia
()
- C. Linnaeus, 1758
- animals
- Subkingdom:
Bilateria
()
- (Hatschek, 1888) Cavalier-Smith, 1983
- Branch:
Protostomia
()
- Grobben, 1908
- Infrakingdom:
Ecdysozoa
()
- A.M.A. Aguinaldo et al., 1997 ex T. Cavalier-Smith, 1998
- Superphylum:
Panarthropoda
()
- Cuvier
- Phylum:
Arthropoda
()
- Latreille, 1829
- Arthropods
- Subphylum:
Mandibulata
()
- Snodgrass, 1938
- Infraphylum:
Atelocerata
()
- Heymons, 1901
- Superclass:
Panhexapoda
()
- Epiclass:
Hexapoda
()
- Class:
Insecta
()
- C. Linnaeus, 1758
- Insects
- Subclass:
Dicondylia
()
- Infraclass:
Pterygota
()
- Cohort:
Myoglossata
()
- Order:
Lepidoptera
()
- Linnaeus, 1758
- Butterflies and Moths
- Infraorder:
Heteroneura
()
- Family:
Hesperiidae
()
- Latreille, 1809
- Skippers
- Genus:
Carcharodus
()
- Hübner, [1819]
- Specific name:
baeticus
- (Rambur, 1839)
- Scientific name: - Carcharodus baeticus (Rambur, 1839)
- Specific name:
baeticus
- (Rambur, 1839)
- Genus:
Carcharodus
(
- Family:
Hesperiidae
(
- Infraorder:
Heteroneura
(
- Order:
Lepidoptera
(
- Cohort:
Myoglossata
(
- Infraclass:
Pterygota
(
- Subclass:
Dicondylia
(
- Class:
Insecta
(
- Epiclass:
Hexapoda
(
- Superclass:
Panhexapoda
(
- Infraphylum:
Atelocerata
(
- Subphylum:
Mandibulata
(
- Phylum:
Arthropoda
(
- Superphylum:
Panarthropoda
(
- Infrakingdom:
Ecdysozoa
(
- Branch:
Protostomia
(
- Subkingdom:
Bilateria
(
- Kingdom:
Animalia
(
Similar Species
Members of the genus Carcharodus
ZipcodeZoo has pages for 2 species and subspecies in this genus:
C. baeticus (Southern Marbled Skipper) · C. flocciferus (Tufted Marbled Skipper)
More Info
- Search for Pictures: images.google.com
- Search for Scholarly Articles: Google Scholar
- Search using Scientific Name and Vernacular Names: All the Web | AltaVista Canada | AltaVista | Excite | Google | HotBot | Lycos
- Search using Specialized Databases: GenBank | Medline | Scirus | CISTI/CAL | Agricola Periodicals | Agricola Books
Further Reading
- Bibliography (Lepidoptera: Rhopalocera) / Charles A. Bridges. Urbana, Ill.: C.A. Bridges, c1993. url p. 348.
- Catalogue of the family-group, genus-group and species-group names of the Hesperioidea (Lepidoptera) of the world / Charles A. Bridges. Urbana, Ill.: C.A. Bridges, c1994. url p. 54.
- The Entomologist's record and journal of variation. s.l., s.n. url p. 63.
Notes
Contributors
- Brands, S.J. (comp.) 1989-present. The Taxonomicon. Universal Taxonomic Services, Zwaag, The Netherlands. Accessed January 17, 2012.
- IUCN 2012. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.2. . Downloaded on January 28, 2012.
- van Swaay, C., Wynhoff, I., Verovnik, R., Wiemers, M., López Munguira, M., Maes, D., Sasic, M., Verstrael, T., Warren, M. & Settele, J. 2010. Carcharodus baeticus. In: IUCN 2011. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.2. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloadedon 31January2012.
Data Sources
Accessed through GBIF Data Portal December 05, 2007:
- SysTax, Lobbecke Museum Dusseldorf
- SysTax, SysTax
Identifiers
- Biodiversity Heritage Library NamebankID: 2959776
- Global Biodiversity Information Facility Taxonkey: 16067669
- IUCN ID: 197947
- Zipcode Zoo Species Identifier: 805124
Footnotes
- http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/taxonomy?f=19&sci=Hesperiidae&com=Skippers [back]
- van Swaay, C., Wynhoff, I., Verovnik, R., Wiemers, M., López Munguira, M., Maes, D., Sasic, M., Verstrael, T., Warren, M. & Settele, J. 2010. Carcharodus baeticus. In: IUCN 2011. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.2. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 31 January 2012. [back]
