Bug FAQArogos Skipper
Atrytone arogos · Order: Lepidoptera · Family: Hesperiidae
Also called: Brown-Rim skipper, beard-grass skipper
The Arogos Skipper is a small butterfly with a wingspan of about 3 cm and bright yellow wings edged in dark brown, the underside being a paler yellow. It lives in grassland-type habitats across the eastern and mid-western United States, often in isolated colonies, and its larvae feed on various native grasses while adults sip nectar from a range of wildflowers.
Source: Wikipedia
How to recognize it
Males show a thinner black border than females. The underside of the wings is a paler yellow than the top side.
Source: Wikipedia
Size
The wingspan ranges from 2.9 to 3.7 cm.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it lives
It prefers grasslands, prairies, flat woods and pine savannas.
Source: Wikipedia
What it eats
Caterpillars feed on grasses such as big bluestem (Andropogon gerardi), Panicum species and short-stem three-awn (Calamovilfa brevipilis).
Source: Wikipedia
Life cycle
The life cycle starts with a cream-colored egg marked by irregular red bands.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it comes from
It may be extirpated from many states including New York, Minnesota, Wyoming, Illinois, the Carolinas, Alabama, Iowa, Georgia, Montana and Pennsylvania.
Source: Wikipedia
Lookalikes
In the southeastern United States it can be confused with the Atrytone delaware, which looks similar.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it is found in the US
Recorded in 23 of 51 states and DC. Most records: Florida, Oklahoma, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Jersey.
Darker = more records. Counts are museum and citizen-science records, not population size.
Source: GBIF
Months it is reported in the US
Source: GBIF
More photos
Questions people ask
What do the caterpillars eat?
Caterpillars feed on grasses such as big bluestem, Panicum species and short-stem three-awn.
Source: Wikipedia
How can I tell a male from a female?
Males have a thinner dark border on their wings than females.
Source: Wikipedia
What similar butterfly might I mistake it for?
It resembles the Atrytone delaware in the southeastern United States.
Source: Wikipedia
Same family (Hesperiidae)
Sources
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atrytone_arogos
Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · ITIS · Wikipedia
Text written 2026-10-24 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-24.