Great British Lepidoptera

Chequered Skipper

(Carterocephalus palaemon)

The Chequered Skipper became extinct in England in 1975, just 177 years after it was discovered in Bedfordshire. It now surives in Britain only in small populations in thr western scottish highlands, and is protected by the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act.

Before it disapeared from England, the butterfly lived in a diagonal strip of limestone countryside from Devon to Lincolnshire, the same area as the Large Blue butterfy (which became extinct at a similar time) and the Black Hairstreak. Fifty-four colonies were recorded in the East Midlands before they declined in the 1960's. One of the main English localities was Rockingham Forest, around Corby in Northamptonshire. The Chequered Skipper lived in clearings and rides in ancient coppice woodlands or old grasslands on chalky soils. The caterpillars' food plants are upright brome grass and tor grass.

Several factors were responsible for the loss of the Chequered Skipper from England. Coppices have been neglected and become overgrown. Other woodlands have been removed or turned over to pine forests. Grazing, even by rabbits, is necessary to maintain a suitable grassy habitat, and the rabbit population was severly reduced by myxomatosis.