Skippers - Sex differentiation

[cabintom]

Are there any common characteristics that can be used to distinguish male from female specimens of skippers?

[cabintom]

I guess not eh?

[rayrard]

I'm sure dissection of a fresh specimen would be conclusive, but the mounted specimen has general shape difference. The badomen of the males is proportionally longer and pointier, and the female's is rounded and more stout. The female's wings are usually more broad and rounded. Folded-wing skippers are quite dimorphic as well.

Differentiating spreadwing skippers is more difficult, but some have subtle dimorphic color patterns and body shape.

[cabintom]

Thanks! That helps. I'll probably just need to spend more time looking at skippers to get a handle on the differences. Currently, I'm having trouble when I've only got one specimen of a species.

[jshuey]

so - I don't know about African species. But in the Western Hemisphere, males almost always have some sort of pheromone dispensing androconia on the wings. Like the figure above – it is usually a “brand” on grass feeding skippers. In other tribes and subfamilies – it is often a costal fold on the forewing. But some have costal patches on the hindwings as well (that are hidden under the forewing), and there are of course a few groups with no androconia.

John

[rayrard]

good point... the black stigma is usually always present on the males of these folded-wing species

[cabintom]

Oct 9, 2014 9:18:43 GMT -8 rayrard said:

good point... the black stigma is usually always present on the males of these folded-wing species

Is it usually located in the same area of the wing? And which sub-families are we referring too? Thanks!

[rayrard]

yes, they are usually in the area of the forewing shown in the upper specimen above.

The folded-wing skippers are the typical Hesperia, Euphyes, Polites, Poanes skippers that sit with their wings folded or their forewings up and the hindwings out. The pyrgine skippers sit with wings flat.