Large Skipper - Life Cycle and Foodplants

Life Cycle and Foodplants

Eggs are laid singly on the underside of foodplant leaves and hatch after about two weeks. They are normally laid on Cocksfoot Dactylis glomerata but they will occasionally use Purple Moor-grass Molinia caerulea, False Brome Brachypodium sylvaticum, Tor-grass B. pinnatum and Wood Small-reed Calamagrostis epigejos. On hatching the larvae construct a shelter in the usual skipper method of curling a leaf up with silk and begins to feed. It hibernates as a half-grown caterpillar and emerges in the spring to continue feeding and growing. The caterpillar has a large blackish-brown head with a dark line down its back and a yellow stripe along each side. Pupation lasts about three weeks during May and June and the adults are present from June to August. It is the first of the 'grass skippers' to emerge in the UK. In northern Europe the butterflies have a single brood, but in the south they may have up to three broods.