A black and white butterfly with blue body hair perching on a flower. Common Checkered Skipper. Burnsius communis.

Wild Facts About The Common Checkered Skipper Butterfly

ByChristine Wild Animals

How To Identify Common Checkered Skipper Butterflies

Appearance Of Adult Butterflies

  • Wingspan: 0.75 – 1.25 inches (1.9 – 3.2 cm)
  • Above:
    • Both fore wings and hind wings are covered with lots of white spots against a black background and fringed in white and black.
      • Females are usually darker than males, with less distinct checkered markings.
    • Body and wing bases are covered in fine, blue-gray hair.
    • Black eyes.
    • Bands of black and white fringe edge their wings.
  • Below:
    • Both fore wings and hind wings have alternating, jagged, brown and white bands.
  • Adult Common Checkered Skippers are indistinguishable from White Checkered Skipper Butterflies (Pyrgus albescens).
    • The two species can be told apart by dissection only (Daniels 2003).

Appearance Of Caterpillars

  • Common Checkered Skipper caterpillars grow to 1.0 inch (2.5 cm) and look similar to the larvae of many other skipper species.
  • They have:
    • Pale green to pink bodies liberally specked with white and covered in short white body hairs,
    • Large, spherical brown heads with wide, distinct brown collars,
Common Checkered Skipper Butterfly. Burnsius communis. White butterfly. Blue butterfly. Black butterfly. Insect. Photograph taken and design created by the author. Copyright © 2025 Now I Wonder. All rights reserved.
Common Checkered Skipper Butterfly Burnsius communis White butterfly Blue butterfly Black butterfly Insect Photograph taken and design created by the author Copyright © 2025 Now I Wonder All rights reserved

How to Find Common Checkered Skipper Butterflies

  • Common Checkered Skipper butterflies fly from early spring through fall.
  • Look for them to emerge starting around mid-April.
    • They have multiple broods every season, so can be found all summer long until mid to late October.
    • They become more common as the summer progresses. August and September have the most individuals.
  • Adult Common Checkered Skipper butterflies live in every open habitat except for deep forest, including:
    • Disturbed areas,
    • Farm fields,
    • Roadsides,
    • Parks.
  • These butterflies prefer areas with lots of low vegetation and some bare soil, like around road shoulders and in vacant lots (Opler and Malikul 1992).
  • Common Checkered Skipper butterflies are very active.
    • They bounce from flower to flower with rapid, darting flight and rarely land for more than a second or two.
    • Their checkerboard wing pattern becomes easily visible as these butterflies spread their wings when perched.
  • Males are aggressive defenders of specific territories (Pyle 1981) and will dart out to challenge encroaching intruders.
Common Checkered Skipper Butterfly. Burnsius communis. White butterfly. Blue butterfly. Black butterfly. Insect. Photograph taken and design created by the author. Copyright © 2025 Now I Wonder. All rights reserved.
Common Checkered Skipper Butterfly Burnsius communis White butterfly Blue butterfly Black butterfly Insect Photograph taken and design created by the author Copyright © 2025 Now I Wonder All rights reserved

What Do Common Checkered Skippers Eat?

Diet Of Adult Common Checkered Skipper Butterflies

  • Adult Common Checkered Skipper butterflies sip nectar from a variety of flowers. They especially like plants within the Aster family (Asteraceae) like:
    • Eastern Daisy Fleabane (Erigeron anuus)
    • Ox-Eye Daisy (Leucanthemum vulgare)
    • Hairy White Oldfield Aster (Symphyotrichum pilosum)
    • Greater Tickseed (Coreopsis major)
    • Bearded Beggartick (Bidens aristosa)

Diet of Common Checkered Skipper Caterpillars

  • Common Checkered Skipper caterpillars eat the leaves of plants in the Mallow family (Malvaceae) including:
    • Rose Mallow (Hibiscus coccinens),
    • Velvetleaf (Abutilon theophrasti),
    • Carolina Bristlemallow (Modiola caroliniana),
    • Cheeses (Malva neglecta).
Common Checkered Skipper Butterfly. Burnsius communis. White butterfly. Blue butterfly. Black butterfly. Insect. Photograph taken and design created by the author. Copyright © 2025 Now I Wonder. All rights reserved.
Common Checkered Skipper Butterfly Burnsius communis White butterfly Blue butterfly Black butterfly Insect Photograph taken and design created by the author Copyright © 2025 Now I Wonder All rights reserved

The One And Only But Also One Of Many

  • Common Checkered Skipper butterflies are just that—common.
    • This species is by far the most widely distributed member of genus Burnsius, inhabiting basically the entire United States except for extreme southern tip of Florida, New England, southern California, and western Arizona.
  • But it isn’t the only Burnsius species flitting around the United States.
    • The White-Checkered Skipper (Burnsius albescens) overlaps the Common Checkered Skipper in central Florida west across the most extreme southern portions of the Gulf states and Texas and replaces the Common Checkered Skipper in southern California and western Arizona.
    • The Tropical Checkered Skipper (Burnsius oileus) overlaps both these species in the southern Gulf states and becomes the only checkered skipper inhabiting the extreme southern tip of Florida.
  • Because these species are so closely related, they are nearly indistinguishable from each other in the areas in which their ranges overlap.
Common Checkered Skipper Butterfly. Burnsius communis. White butterfly. Blue butterfly. Black butterfly. Insect. Photograph taken and design created by the author. Copyright © 2025 Now I Wonder. All rights reserved.
Common Checkered Skipper Butterfly Burnsius communis White butterfly Blue butterfly Black butterfly Insect Photograph taken and design created by the author Copyright © 2025 Now I Wonder All rights reserved

Less Common Than They Used To Be

  • The Common Checkered Skipper butterfly was the only species in its genus that originally occurred in Florida.
    • All 54 specimens collected in Florida in the 90 years prior to 1976 are Common Checkered Skippers.
  • But its very close cousin, the White Checkered Skipper (B. albescens) has rapidly taken over and pushed the Common Checkered Skipper out of much of its Florida range.

Scientific Classification

Kingdom

Animalia (animals)

Phylum

Arthropoda (arthropods)

Class

Insecta (insects)

Order

Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths)

Family

Hesperiidae (skipper butterflies)

Genus

Burnsius

Species

B. communis (formerly Pyrgus communis)

Scientific Name

Burnsius communis (formerly Pyrgus communis)

Common Checkered Skipper Butterfly Photo Gallery

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Christine
Christine is the creator and author of NowIWonder.com, a website dedicated to the animals and plants that share our world, and the science that helps us understand them. Inspired by lifelong exploration and learning, Christine loves to share her knowledge with others who want to connect with wild faces and wild spaces.
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