Common Checkered-Skipper

Pyrgus communis · Order: Lepidoptera · Family: Hesperiidae

No source yet on danger. We have no source yet on whether it bites, stings or damages anything.

In the south it flies all year with several generations, while in the north it produces two broods and remains active into late fall.

How to recognize it

The wings have a checkerboard pattern; males show broader bands than females, and the body is blue-gray with a light covering of fuzz.

Wingspan ranges from 19 to 32 mm.

In southern regions it flies year-round with multiple broods. In northern regions it produces two broods and flies into late fall.

Southern populations are active all year; northern ones appear in two generations and persist into late autumn.

Native to southern Canada and most of the United States. It has also been observed in Mexico.

Burnsius communis is the same species, formerly known as Pyrgus communis.

Recorded in 48 of 51 states and DC. Most records: Texas, California, South Carolina, Arizona, Ohio, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico.

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Darker = more records. Counts are museum and citizen-science records, not population size.

Source: GBIF

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Source: GBIF

When are common checkered-skippers active?

In the south they can be seen throughout the year, while in the north they appear in two generations and remain on the wing into late fall.

What does the common checkered-skipper look like?

It has a checkerboard wing pattern with broader bands in males, a blue-gray body, and a light covering of fuzz typical of skippers.

Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · BugGuide · Wikipedia

Text written 2026-10-23 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-23.