Essex Skipper (Thymelicus lineola)

These speedy butterflies can be found in the same habitat as the Small Skipper, which include motorways verges and coastal embankments. They can also be found on grassy areas of heath and downland, and along forestry rides or on farms. They feed on the nectar of many wild flowers, and the caterpillars live on grass.

The Essex Skipper, a species restricted to a widening portion of central and sout-east England was just over a hundred years ago, unheard of in Britain to the enthusiasts of the day. Despite having probably existed in Britain for many hundreds of years before the species was only notified here in Great Britain in July 1888. It was then that a specimen caught years before was queried and postively identified in the county of Essex by a Mr Hawes, a butterfly collector who pointed out the differences.

Visually, the Essex Skipper is fashioned with black tips on the underside of the antenna, appearing as if they have been delicately dipped in ink. In terms of lifecycle, it was later uncovered that unlike the Small Skipper which overwinters as a larva, the Essex overwinters instead as an egg.

Facing the winter as a protected, widely element-proof egg had many benefits for the Essex Skipper which became apparent in the great flood of 1953 that hit a stronghold of the butterfly, along the east coast of Essex and Kent.

It was this overwintering strategy that enabled a vast amount of the Essex Skipper eggs to survive this flood where the caterpillars of other species, including its close cousin, the Small Skipper, died in large numbers.