Life Cycle
Eggs are laid in strings on the stems of grasses where they remain over the winter. The favoured foodplant is Cock's-foot (Dactylis glomerata) and it rarely uses the Small Skipper's favoured foodplant Yorkshire Fog. Other choices include Creeping Soft Grass (Holcus mollis), Couch Grass (Elymus repens), Timothy-grass (Phleum pratense), Meadow Foxtail (Alopecurus pratensis), False Brome (Brachypodium sylvaticum) and Tor-grass (Brachypodium pinnatum). The caterpillars emerge in the spring and feed until June before forming shelters from leaves tied with silk at the base of the foodplant to pupate. The adult flies from July to August. Like most skippers, they are fairly strictly diurnal, though individuals are very rarely encountered during the night.
Read more about this topic: Essex Skipper
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