Bug FAQSalt Marsh Skipper
Panoquina panoquin · Order: Lepidoptera · Family: Hesperiidae
The salt marsh skipper is a small butterfly with a wingspan of about 35 to 39 mm. It lives along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the United States, from New York down to Florida and west to southern Texas. Adults sip nectar from many flowers, while the caterpillars eat the grass Distichlis spicata.
Source: Wikipedia
How to recognize it
Panoquina panoquin, called the salt marsh skipper, belongs to the skipper family Hesperiidae.
Source: Wikipedia
Size
Its wings measure roughly 35 to 39 mm across.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it lives
It is found on salt-marsh habitats along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the United States.
Source: Wikipedia
What it eats
Adult butterflies feed on nectar from a wide variety of flowering plants. Caterpillars feed on the grass Distichlis spicata.
Source: Wikipedia
Life cycle
In the northern part of its range, adults appear from May to August in two generations; farther south they appear from April to October in three generations. In Florida, there are many overlapping generations with adults on the wing from February through December.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it comes from
The species is native to the United States, ranging from New York to Florida and west to southern Texas.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it is found in the US
Recorded in 14 of 51 states and DC. Most records: Florida, South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, New Jersey, North Carolina, Maryland, Texas.
Darker = more records. Counts are museum and citizen-science records, not population size.
Source: GBIF
Status: endemic in North America; endemic in United States. Source: iNaturalist
Months it is reported in the US
Source: GBIF
More photos
Questions people ask
When can I see salt marsh skippers?
They fly from May to August in the northern range and from April to October in the southern range; in Florida they may be seen from February through December.
Source: Wikipedia
Same family (Hesperiidae)
Sources
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panoquina_panoquin
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.