These two butterflies look similar, eat similar plants, and fly during the same period of the summer.
Which of the following species is the Northern Cloudywing?
- Left
- Right
0
voters
The Northern Cloudywing is the species on the right. The species on the left is the Wild Indigo Duskywing.
Both species have a dark brown/grey upper side, but the brown of the Northern Cloudywing is more prominent. They have several white – clear spots that are small and triangular. It is their distinct lack of patterns that help identify them from other dark colored skippers. The Wild Indigo Duskywing on the other hand has more prominent grey and white patterning including along the fringes of their wings and on the tips of their forewings. The Wild Indigo Duskywing is noted to have a row of long black “finger” like patterns in the center of their grey tips. Their hind wings are also mottled with cream colored spots, which are absent in the Northern Cloudywing.
Although they may look similar, they are actually part of different subfamilies. The Northern Cloudywing is a Dicot Skipper (Eudaminae), while the Wild Indigo Duskywing is a Spread-wing Skipper (Pyrginae). The Northern Cloudywing was first described by Samuel Hubbard Scudder of Massachusetts in 1870. (He was also the founder of the field of insect palentology in America!) The Wild Indigo Duskywing wasn’t described until 1936 by the long-named William Trowbridge Merrifield Forbes also of Massachusetts.
Photos by
Northern Cloudywing by neilhusher (iNaturalist)
Wild Indigo Duskywing by David Bird (iNaturalist)
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