Bug FAQNorthern Grizzled Skipper
Pyrgus centaureae · Order: Lepidoptera · Family: Hesperiidae
Also called: Grizzled Skipper
The northern grizzled skipper is a small butterfly with a 25 to 33 mm wingspan, greyer brown wings marked by bold white spots, and white-lined veins on the underside. It inhabits northern taiga and tundra regions, occurring from the subarctic of North America down to New Mexico and across northern Europe and Asia.
Source: Wikipedia
How to recognize it
The wings have a greyer brown background with bold white spots on both forewing and hindwing. The veins on the underside are clearly lined in white.
Source: Wikipedia
Size
Its wingspan ranges from about 25 to 33 millimetres.
Source: Wikipedia
What it eats
Caterpillars feed on cloudberry, wild strawberry, dwarf cinquefoil and varileaf cinquefoil.
Source: Wikipedia
Life cycle
In the southern part of its range it produces one generation each year from March to May. In the subarctic the development takes two years per brood.
Source: Wikipedia
When you see it
Adults are on the wing in June and July.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it comes from
In North America it is found from the subarctic south to New Mexico and east to the Appalachian Mountains. In the Palearctic it occurs across Scandinavia, northern European Russia, the Urals, northern Asia to the Altai.
Source: Wikipedia
Lookalikes
It resembles other Pyrgus skippers but can be told apart by its greyer brown wings with bold white spots.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it is found in the US
Recorded in 21 of 51 states and DC. Most records: Colorado, Wyoming, Washington, Alaska, Pennsylvania, Utah, Michigan, Maryland.
Darker = more records. Counts are museum and citizen-science records, not population size.
Source: GBIF
Status: native in North America; native in United States; native in Canada. Source: iNaturalist
Months it is reported in the US
Source: GBIF
More photos
Questions people ask
What does the northern grizzled skipper look like?
It has a greyer brown wing background with bold white spots and white-lined veins on the underside.
Source: Wikipedia
Where is the northern grizzled skipper found?
In North America from the subarctic to New Mexico and the Appalachians, and across northern Europe and Asia.
Source: Wikipedia
What plants do the caterpillars eat?
They feed on cloudberry, wild strawberry, dwarf cinquefoil and varileaf cinquefoil.
Source: Wikipedia
Same family (Hesperiidae)
Sources
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_grizzled_skipper
Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · ITIS · Wikipedia
Text written 2026-10-25 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-25.