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ID Guide: Golden Skippers
There are three golden skipper species in the West Midlands, the Large Skipper, Small Skipper and Essex Skipper and they can be quite challenging to tell apart. This guide explains the key distinguishing features that will help you to identify them in the field or when reviewing your photos at home. Once you have got to grip with the key differences you can test your new found identification skills when other people ask for help.
Large Skipper
The Large Skipper has features that help you to separate it from the other two skippers and you can use these features to either rule it in our out.
Large Skippers are a rather deep orange colour but what separates them from Small and Essex Skippers is the mixture of light and dark markings on the wings which you can clearly see in the following photos.
The slightly larger female on the left and the male on the right identifed by its distinctive sex brand (the black line across the middle of the upper forewing). Photo by John Devries
In this photo the checker markings can clearly be seen from the underside of the wings. Photo by Julian John
The other distinguishing feature is that the antennae of Large Skipper are hooked as you can see in this photo by Graham Cherry however this is not easy to see in the field
Small Skipper versus Essex Skipper
If you have ruled out Large Skipper then you can try to work out if your butterfly is a Small Skipper or an Essex Skipper.
There are two key differences but the first one is only applicable to the males of the two species. The sex brands of the Essex Skipper are shorter and straighter, and they run parallel to the forewing edge rather than at an angle.
This stunning photo was taken by Melvyn Lambert at Venus Pool in Shropshire. He was in the right place to find a male Essex Skipper (left) and a male Small Skipper (right) posed together.The other feature relies on being able to see the underside of the tips of the antennae and you can achieve this without a camera if your skipper allows you to get close enough. The Essex Skipper has very distinctive jet black underside tips to the antennae whereas those of the Small Skipper are orange-brown.
These photos by Roger Littleover show the Essex Skipper on the left and the Small Skipper on the right
Other Resources
Quiz on Facebook - test yourself using this quiz by John Devries