Duskywing
Erynnis sp. · Butterflies
Duskywing on mountain mint
Brooklyn Botanic Garden, 26 July 2026
A duskywing with wings spread on mountain mint in the late-July border, a skipper of the eastern woods and their edges on the busiest plant in the garden.
The genus as a whole overwinters as a partly grown caterpillar rather than as an egg or a chrysalis, tucked into a folded leaf shelter on its host plant - among the reasons a messy corner of a garden left uncleared over winter can matter more to next year's skippers than it looks.
Duskywing on clethra
Brooklyn Botanic Garden, 26 July 2026
A duskywing with wings spread flat against a spike of clethra in the late-July border. Clethra, or summersweet, is a native shrub of the eastern wetlands whose narrow white flowers and strong fragrance make it a fixture for anything on the wing, and the duskywings are skippers of the eastern woods and their edges.
A notoriously difficult genus to sort to species from a photograph. The dark, faintly mottled wings and small pale spots narrow it down but don't settle it.
Birds, insects, plants and other wildlife, mostly from Brooklyn, with some from further afield.
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