Silver-spotted Skipper
Epargyreus clarus
Silver-spotted Skipper · Arverne Preserve · 20 June 2026

A Silver-spotted Skipper at Arverne, the largest and easiest skipper in the East, found in open ground and gardens across the continent wherever there are legumes for the caterpillars, black locust most of all.
The single large, irregular silver-white blotch on the underside of the hindwing is unmistakable and shared by nothing else in the Northeast. Skippers are often lumped in conversation with "butterflies" without really looking like one, stockier and faster with hooked antennal clubs, and this is usually the species used to make the introduction.
Birds, insects, plants and other wildlife, mostly from Brooklyn, with some from further afield.
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