Black butterflies add warm, natural beauty to North Carolina’s diverse butterfly population. This guide introduces you to the species you can find across the state. Learn about the different species of brown butterflies, their unique behaviors, and where to observe them in the wild.

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Brown Butterflies Found In North Carolina

Common Buckeye Butterfly

Phylum

Arthropoda

Class

Insecta

Order

Lepidoptera

Family

Nymphalidae (Brush-footed Butterflies)

Genus

Junonia

Species

J. coenia

Binomial Name

Junonia coenia

  • Common Buckeye butterflies are large brown butterflies that are easily recognized thanks to several large, multi-colored eyespots, two orange forewing bars, and a habit of perching on open ground with wings outstretched.
  • Common Buckeye caterpillars eat so many different kinds of plants that they can help control weeds in home gardens (Bartlett Wright 1993).
  • Common Buckeye butterflies are cold-sensitive and fly south to the southern United States during the winter. These brown butterflies travel along river valleys and re-colonize the northern reaches of their range every spring.
  • Male Common Buckeye butterflies are territorial and often fly out to meet moving objects. This trait—along with a liking for perching on bare ground—helps make these brown butterflies easy to observe from a distance. However, they are wary and likely to fly off when approached.
  • Planting snapdragons in your home garden can attract Common Buckeye butterflies.

Common Buckeye Butterfly Images

How To Identify Common Buckeye Butterflies

  • Wingspan: 2.0 – 2.5 inches (5.0 – 63.4 cm)
  • Males and females look similar.
    • Females tend to be slightly larger and have larger wing markings (Daniels 2003).
  • Above:
    • Both forewings and hind wings are brown overall.
    • Each forewing has two short, wide, orange wing bars and a single large, multi-colored eye spot.
    • Each hind wing has two large, multi-colored eye spots—one very large, one slightly smaller.
      • A series of concentric rings form patterns that look like large eyes.
      • The eye spots are multi-colored in rust, creamy white, lavender, and velvety black.
      • The eye spots include a spot of white that mimics the shine of light reflecting off a moist eyeball.
    • Hind wing margins are orange, with black and tan stripes along the edges.
  • Below:
    • The appearance of these brown butterflies varies varies by season.
    • The forewing and hind wings of spring adults are brown; the wings of fall adults are rust.
    • The upper wing surface is deep brown and orange while the under surface is more muted in shades of tan and rust.
    • On some individuals, wing spots show on both surfaces, with muted color on the under surface. On other individuals, the wing spots are small, dark, and subtle.

How to Find Common Buckeye Butterflies

  • Flight Season: Adults fly between April through November in North Carolina.
    • Common Buckeye butterflies can’t withstand freezing temperatures, so northern individuals fly south in the fall.
    • Some may overwinter in North Carolina during exceptionally warm winters but most of the time, these brown butterflies spend the winter months in the Gulf Coast states, like Florida (Daniels 2003).
  • Look for Common Buckeye butterflies in open, disturbed areas, like along roadsides and in power line cuts, old fields, and gardens.
    • These brown butterflies seem to like the edges of pine woods as well.
  • Adult Common Buckeye butterflies feed on nectar from a variety of flowering plants. They especially like nectar from plants in the Aster family (Asteraceae), like Tickseed (Bidens aristosa) (Opler 1994) and Greater Tickseed (Coreopsis major).

How to Identify Common Buckeye Eggs, Caterpillars, And Chrysalises

Eggs

  • Female Common Buckeye butterflies lay dark green, ribbed, flat-topped eggs (Pyle 1981) one at a time on host plants.

Caterpillars

  • Common Buckeye caterpillars grow to 1.8 inches (4.5 cm).
  • Usually black; black, metallic, branched spines protrude from body segments.
    • Spines along the sides have orange, wart-like bases.
  • Single, thin, pale stripes run lengthwise down the caterpillars’ backs and along their sides.
  • Heads are orange, sprinkled with white dots (Wagner 2005).
  • Common Buckeye caterpillars feed on a wide variety of North Carolina host plants, especially those classified in the following families:
  • Figwort family (Scrophulariaceae):
    • Woolly Mullein (Verbascum thapsus)
    • Beard Tongue (Penstemon canescens)
    • Toadflax (Linaria canadensis)
    • Speedwell (Veronica persica)
    • False Foxglove (Aureolaria pedicularia)
    • Downy Foxglove (Aureolaria virginiaca)
  • Stonecrop family (Crassulaceae):
    • Mossy Stonecrop (Sedum acre)
    • Stonecrop (Sedum ternatum)
    • Live Forever (Sedum telephioides)
  • Vervain or Verbena family (Verbenaceae):
    • Beauty Berry (Callicarpa americana)
    • Lopseed (Phryma leptostachya)
    • Rose Vervain (Verbena canadensis)
    • Blue Vervain (Verbena hastata)
  • Look for Common Buckeye caterpillars wherever their food plants grow, such as:
    • Bogs, marshes, moist meadows, roadsides (Figwort family Scrophulariaceae)
    • Disturbed areas, roadsides, open, moist woods, rocky crevices (Stonecrop family Crassulaceae)
    • Moist woods, thickets, sandy areas, shorelines (Vervain or Verbena family Verbenaceae).

Chrysalises

  • Chrysalises are mottled, pale brown, approximately 1.0 inches (2.5 cm), and hang from host plant leaves by silken threads (Pyle 1981).

Horace’s Duskywing Skipper Butterfly

Phylum

Arthropoda

Class

Insecta

Order

Lepidoptera

Family

Hesperiidae (Skipper Butterflies)

Genus

Erynnis

Species

E. horatius

Binomial Name

Erynnis horatius

  • Often mistaken for moths because both are dull brown and spread their wings out flat when perched.
  • Called “skippers” because of their quick, darting flying style, called “duskywings” because of their dull, brown coloration, and “Horace’s” after a Roman poet (many duskywing species are named after Roman poets) (Glassberg 1999).
  • Horace Duskywing Skippers do not sequester toxic chemicals from their food plants in their body tissues like some other butterfly species. They are entirely edible for insect-eating predators like birds, spiders, assassin bugs, and Green Anoles.
  • Look very similar to several other Duskywing species, like Juvenal’s Duskywing (Erynnis juvenalis) and Zarucco Duskywing (Erynnis zarucco). Distinguishing between the different species can be difficult for two reasons:
    • Species identification relies on faint and subtle field marks.
    • Individuals within the same species can vary in appearance.
  • Casual nature observers in North Carolina are most apt to spot a Horace’s Duskywing Skipper as this species has a longer flight season and a broader distribution than the other species.

Horace’s Duskywing Skipper Butterfly Images

How To Identify Horace’s Duskywing Skipper Butterflies

  • Wingspan: 1.25 – 1.75 inches (3.2 – 4.4 cm)
  • Above:
    • Both forewings and hind wings are predominantly brown, with no gray.
    • Differentiated from several different species of Duskywing Skippers mostly by the presence of a single, tiny, white spot on the forewing cell.
    • Cluster of small, white spots at forewing tip.
      • Wing markings are otherwise minimal and small, pale, and faint.
    • Females are lighter brown overall, with more contrast in wing markings.
  • Below:
    • Paler than above overall.
    • Mottled dark and light brown with no white markings.

How to Find Horace’s Duskywing Skipper Butterflies

  • Flight Season: In North Carolina, adult Horace’s Duskywing Skippers fly between May and October, and have approximately three broods every summer (Daniels 2003).
    • These brown butterflies fly longer than other duskywing skippers such as the Juvenal’s Skipper (Erynnis juvenalis), which only flies for the first few months of spring.
  • Look for adult Horace’s Duskywing Skippers in warm, sunny spots near woodlands, especially woods with oak trees.
  • Males perch on low vegetation and sometimes like to puddle at damp sand or gravel to drink water and obtain mineral salts.

How To Identify Horace’s Duskywing Skipper Eggs, Caterpillars, And Chrysalises

Eggs

  • Horace Duskywing Skipper (Erynnis horatius) eggs are relatively large, laid singly (Wagner 2005), and start out green, then turn pink as the larvae grow (Pyle 1981).

Caterpillars

  • Grow to approximately 1.2 inches (3 cm)
  • Hairy, blue-green bodies, with a pale side stripe.
  • Large, spherical, orange-brown head decorated with three orange spots on each side (Wagner 2005)
  • Horace’s Duskywing Skipper caterpillars feed at night, so are hard to find but look for them on and around oak trees.
    • Horace Duskywing Skipper (Erynnis horatius) caterpillars feed on a variety of oak trees (genus Quercus) found in North Carolina, especially:
      • Live Oak (Quercus virginiana)
      • Turkey Oak (Quercus laevis)
      • Water Oak (Quercus nigra)
      • Post Oak (Quercus stellata) (Daniels 2003).
  • Duskywing Skipper caterpillars grow throughout the summer months and change color as the summer progresses to mimic the color of the leaves upon which they feed (Wagner 2005).
    • They start out green, then slowly turn reddish as the oak leaves lose their green chlorophyll and assume their reddish-orange autumn colors.
  • When summer turns to fall and the temperatures begin to drop, the last brood of caterpillars drop off their host plants and take refuge in leaf litter (Pyle 1981).

Chrysalises

  • In spring, Horace’s Duskywing Skipper caterpillars respond to warming temperatures and form dark green or brown chrysalises (Pyle 1981). They metamorphose inside, then emerge as the spring season’s first adults.

Long-tailed Skipper Butterfly

Phylum

Arthropoda

Class

Insecta

Order

Lepidoptera

Family

Hesperiidae (Skipper Butterflies)

Genus

Urbanus

Species

U. proteus

Binomial Name

Urbanus proteus

  • Long-tailed Skipper butterflies in North Carolina are migratory. They fly south when temperatures drop in the fall and overwinter in sunny, warm Florida (Daniels 2003).
  • These beautiful green and brown butterflies are most common in the southeastern corner of North Carolina.
  • Long-tailed Skipper butterflies are also known as “Bean Leaf Rollers” (Wagner 2005), thanks to the caterpillars’ habit of forming shelters out of the bean plant leaves upon which they feed.

Long-tailed Skipper Butterfly Images

How To Identify Long-tailed Skipper Butterflies

  • Wingspan: 1.5 – 2.0 inches (3.8 – 5.1 cm)
  • Above:
    • Deep green-blue hair covers body, bases of both forewing and hind wings, and head.
    • Angular wings with a band of pale squares along the middle of the forewing, and scattered pale squares towards forewing tip.
    • Each hind wing bears a long tail that projects nearly 0.8 inches (2 cm) beyond the trailing edge.
      • These tails can wear away with age, because of predator attacks, and through friction with vegetation.
  • Below:
    • Pale brown overall.
    • Forewings show pale, translucent patches
    • Hind wings have two rows of darker, chocolate brown markings.

How To Find Long-tailed Skipper Butterflies

  • Flight Season: Adult Long-tailed Skipper butterflies fly only in late summer and early fall in North Carolina, between late August and mid-November.
  • Long-tailed Skippers can’t tolerate cold temperatures during any part of their lifecycle.
    • Thus, these brown butterflies visit North Carolina only seasonally.
    • They migrate north from and south to Florida in a regular pattern that follows changing temperatures.
      • Adult Long-tailed Skippers don’t mate during the winter months but enter “reproductive arrest” until the weather warms again (Opler and Malikul 1992).
    • Long-tailed Skippers are most abundant in the fall before the first hard freeze, as they flee south through our state towards Florida.
  • Look for adult Long-tailed Skippers during the warmest summer months in pinelands, fields, home gardens, and fallow agricultural fields, as well as along roadsides and utility easements.
    • Both sexes fly fast and usually low to ground.
    • Avid nectar feeders, individual Long-tailed Skippers visit huge numbers of flowers throughout the day.
      • They especially love plants in the Verbena family (Verbenaceae) like:
      • White Vervain (Verbena urticifolia)
      • Lavender Vervain (Verbena simplex)
      • Lantanas (Lantana spp.) (Opler and Malikul 1992)
    • In between feedings, males perch on low vegetation and fly back and forth patrolling for females with whom to mate. In contrast, females focus on identifying appropriate host plants and laying eggs between feedings.

How To Identify Long-tailed Skipper Eggs, Caterpillars, And Chrysalises

Eggs

  • Female Long-tailed Skippers lay their eggs one at a time on the underside of host plant leaves (Daniels 2003). The eggs are pale yellow and tiny—only about 1/256th of an inch (0.004 inches or 0.1mm) (Pyle 1981).

Caterpillars

  • Long-tailed Skipper caterpillars are colorful and distinctive, and grow to about 1.25 inches (3.2 cm) long.
    • Round, dark brown, spherical head with distinct collar or “neck”.
    • Large black spot in center of “face” separates two smaller orange spots
    • Body is green with several stripes that run from head to abdominal tip.
      • Thin black, mid-dorsal stripe.
      • Single, wider yellow sub-dorsal stripe on either side.
    • Dark, orange-brown spot over final abdominal segment and anal plate (Wagner 2005).
  • Look for Long-tailed Skipper caterpillars on plants in the Pea family (Fabaceae) like:
    • American Hog Peanut (Amphicarpaea bracteata)
    • Wild Lupine (Lupinus perennis)
    • Pink Fuzzybean (Strophostyles umbellata)
    • Spurred Butterfly Pea (Centrosema virginianum)
    • Perennial Pea (Lathyrus latifolius)
    • Kudzu (Pueraria montana)
  • Unfortunately, humans also cultivate plants in the Pea family, so this species is considered a pest by many bean farmers and home gardeners.

Chrysalises

  • Long-tailed Skipper chrysalises are 0.875 inches long (22 mm), chocolate brown subtly shaded with blue and yellow, and covered in a white, powdery surface (Pyle 1981).

Silver-spotted Skipper Butterfly

Phylum

Arthropoda

Class

Insecta

Order

Lepidoptera

Family

Hesperiidae (Skipper Butterflies)

Genus

Epargyreus

Species

E. clarus

Binomial Name

Epargyreus clarus

  • Silver-spotted Skipper caterpillars shoot their excrement (called “frass”) up to 38 body lengths away from themselves (Weiss 2003) in an evolved defense mechanisms against dangerous creatures like parasitic wasps that might otherwise locate the caterpillars by smelling their frass.
  • Adult Silver-spotted Skipper butterflies have long probosces, so can access nectar from a wide variety of flowers (Daniels 2003).
  • Although Silver-spotted Skimmers are classified as “spread-wing skippers” in subfamily Pyrginae, they usually perch with their wings closed unless basking in the sun.

Silver-spotted Skipper Butterfly Images

How To Identify Silver-spotted Skipper Butterflies

  • Wingspan: 1.75 – 2.4 inches (4 – 6.1 cm)
  • Male and female Silver-spotted Skipper butterflies look similar.
  • Above:
    • Dark brown with an orange band across the middle of the fore wing.
    • Large, dark eyes.
    • Hooked antennae.
  • Below:
    • Dark brown overall with large, bright, irregular silver-white patch on the hind wing.
    • Forewing looks much the same as from above—dark brown with an orange band.
    • Short, stout abdomen.

How to Find Silver-spotted Skipper Butterflies

  • Flight Season: Adults fly between early May through late October in North Carolina.
  • Look for these brown butterflies in open, sunny spaces with flowers, like meadows, roadsides, parks, orchards, utility easements and gardens.
  • Male Silver-spotted Skipper butterflies are territorial and often perch on low vegetation so they can watch for females and intruding males (Brock and Kaufman 2006). Sometimes, individual males will fly out to investigate passing humans.

How to Identify Silver-spotted Skipper Eggs, Caterpillars, And Chrysalises

Eggs

  • Female Silver-spotted Skippers lay their round, green eggs one at a time on the leaves of their host plants (Daniels 2003).

Caterpillars

  • Approximately 1.4 inches (3.5 cm) long.
  • Large, spherical, reddish-brown head with a pair of large orange spots attached to body with distinctive “collar”.
  • Wrinkled, mostly bright yellow, with alternating yellow and thin green bands along each body segment.
  • Covered in very short, nearly invisible bristles (Wagner 2005).
  • Silver-spotted Skipper caterpillars feed on a wide variety of plants including Black Locust trees (Robinia pseudoacacia) and plants in the Pea family (Fabaceae) like:
    • Bush Clover (Lespedza spp.)
    • False Indigo (Amorpha fruticosa)
    • Kudzu (Pueraria montana)
    • Groundnut (Apios americana)
    • Wisteria (Wisteria frutescens)
    • Spurred Butterfly Pea (Centrosema virginianum)
  • Wisteria and Kudzu are both non-native, invasive plants in North Carolina. Both may be used as food sources by Silver-spotted Skipper caterpillars, with Kudzu preferred over Wisteria. However, both seem to provide less nutrition than native Black Locust trees (Rosenwald et al. 2017).

Chrysalises

  • Chrysalises are shades of brown and hidden in leaf litter (Pyle 1981).