Bug FAQTropical Checkered-Skipper
Burnsius oileus · Order: Lepidoptera · Family: Hesperiidae
The tropical checkered-skipper is a small skipper butterfly with a wingspan of about 3.2 to 3.8 cm. Caterpillars eat several Malvaceae plants, while adults sip nectar from Sida flowers and small composites.
Source: Wikipedia
How to recognize it
Burnsius oileus, called the tropical checkered-skipper, belongs to the skipper family Hesperiidae.
Source: Wikipedia
Size
Its wingspan ranges from 32 to 38 mm.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it lives
It is found in Peninsular Florida, the Gulf Coast, southern Texas, the West Indies, Mexico, Central America and down to Costa Rica.
Source: Wikipedia
What it eats
Adults drink nectar from Sida species and small-flowered composites like shepherd's needles.
Source: Wikipedia
Life cycle
In southern Texas and Florida there are four to five generations each year.
Source: Wikipedia
Lookalikes
It was moved to the genus Burnsius in 2019; before that it was known as Pyrgus oileus.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it is found in the US
Recorded in 18 of 51 states and DC. Most records: Texas, Florida, South Carolina, Louisiana, Georgia, Alabama, Arizona, Mississippi.
Darker = more records. Counts are museum and citizen-science records, not population size.
Source: GBIF
Status: native in North America. Source: iNaturalist
Months it is reported in the US
Source: GBIF
More photos
Questions people ask
Where might I see this butterfly?
Look for it in southern Texas, Florida, the Gulf Coast, the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America.
Source: Wikipedia
Same family (Hesperiidae)
Sources
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burnsius_oileus
Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · Wikipedia
Text written 2026-10-22 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-22.