Long Dash Skippers

Order: Lepidoptera

Family: Hesperiidae

Genus: Polites

Species: P. mystic

Identifying Characteristics:

- Wing span: 23-29 mm

- Male: upperside is bright orange brown with a wide dark brown border covering the outer third of each wing. It has a dark patch along the outer edge of the black stigma and another wide rectangular one near the wing tip, which make the stigma appear much longer and wider than it really is, and giving the species its common name.

- Female: upperside is mostly dark brown, with varying amounts of dull orange or straw-colored shading on the costa.

- Both sexes have a pale orange medial patch on the hindwing above crossed by the dark veins, and a crescent-shaped band of pale medial spots on the underside, parallel to the outer margin of the wing

Special Adaptations:

- Caterpillar host: bluegrass

- Females deposit eggs singly on or near the host plant. Caterpillars feed on leaves.

- Habitat: open, moist areas including meadows, marshes, wood edges, and prairies

- Flight season:It flies from early June to late July in the east, into mid-August on the Prairies; there is one generation each year throughout its range.