Bug FAQCommon Branded Skipper
Hesperia comma · Order: Lepidoptera · Family: Hesperiidae
Also called: Holarctic Grass Skipper, Silver spotted skipper
Adult Common Branded Skippers have orange upper wings with dark edges and many white spots on the underside; females are slightly larger and have paler spots. The larvae live in grazed, not overly overgrown grasslands, build tiny silk tents from leaf blades, and spend about 100 days feeding before overwintering as eggs for seven months. Adults appear from July through September, and females lay eggs in August and September.
Source: Wikipedia
How to recognize it
Adults show white tips with yellowish-white spots and orange dorsal wing surfaces edged in dark brown; the underside is green or olive with many pale spots.
Source: Wikipedia
Size
Females are generally larger than males.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it lives
Larvae develop in grazed areas that are not heavily overgrown.
Source: Wikipedia
What it eats
Larvae construct small tents from leaf blades, grass and silk and feed from within them.
Source: Wikipedia
Life cycle
The species lives about a year, spending roughly seven months as overwintering eggs before hatching in spring. The larval stage lasts around 100 days.
Source: Wikipedia
When you see it
Adults emerge between July and September. Females lay eggs in August and September.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it comes from
The species prefers warm, calcareous sites and ranges from North Africa across Europe up to the Arctic, extending east through Asia to China and Japan. It was originally called the Pearl Skipper and is now often called the Silver-Spotted Skipper.
Source: Wikipedia
Lookalikes
It can be confused with the Large Skipper, but it has many white spots on the underside of the hindwings and darker forewing tips. The upper side resembles the Large Skipper, though its spots tend to be more yellow.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it is found in the US
Recorded in 29 of 51 states and DC. Most records: California, Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Michigan, New Mexico.
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
How do I tell a Common Branded Skipper apart from a Large Skipper?
Look for numerous white spots on the underside of the hindwings and darker tips on the upper forewings; the spots are often more yellow than in the Large Skipper.
Source: Wikipedia
Same family (Hesperiidae)
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Sources
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hesperia_comma
Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · ITIS · Wikipedia
Text written 2026-10-23 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-23.