Essex skipper
This butterfly lays eggs in rows inside grass stems, where the fully formed caterpillar waits unhatched through autumn and winter before emerging in spring.
| Where | Grassy meadows, verges and downland |
|---|---|
| Size | 25 to 29 mm wingspan |
| When | June to August |
The Essex Skipper is a small orange brown butterfly, best told from similar skippers by the undersides of its antennae tips, which look as if dipped in black ink.
Eggs are laid in short rows in the sheath between grass stem and blade, and the fully formed caterpillar remains dormant inside the egg through winter before hatching the following spring.
Traits
Habitat
Grassland
Colour
Orange, Brown
Active
Day
To people
Basks with wings held half open on grass stems; harmless to people.
Activity through the year
Often confused with
Very similar in size and color, but its antennae tips are orange brown rather than sharply black underneath, and it tends to fly a little earlier in summer.
Questions
Is the Essex skipper dangerous to people?
Basks with wings held half open on grass stems; harmless to people.
When can you see the Essex skipper?
The Essex skipper can be seen from June to August, by day.
Plate retouched from a photo by Didier Descouens, CC BY‑SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons Licence
The plate on this page is shared under the same licence as its source, CC BY-SA.
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Butterflies and moths›Skippers›Thymelicus
Last updated 2026-09-26. Every entry is checked against published sources.