Yellow Skipper - Yellow Skipper

A butterfly belonging to the family Hesperiidae in the order Lepidoptera of the class Insecta. In Japan, it is distributed from Hokkaido to Kyushu, but in the warm areas of southwestern Japan, it is a rare species that is found locally in mountainous areas. It is not uncommon in Hokkaido and mountainous areas from the Tohoku region of Honshu to the Chubu region. Outside of Japan, it is distributed in the Korean Peninsula, Primorsky Krai of the Russian Federation, and China, and is a species endemic to East Asia. The wingspan is about 42 mm. The base color of the wings is brown, and the surface of the male is unmarked, while the female has eight gray-yellow spots on the forewings. They emerge once a year, and generally speaking, the peak season for adult emergence is from mid-July to early August, but in some cases males can appear as early as late June, and surviving injured females can be seen until September. Both males and females visit flowers, but only males gather in swarms in wetlands. The larvae feed on the grass of the Araliaceae family, the Japanese laurel (also known as the Japanese laurel tree). The overwintering form is a larva that burrows under the epidermis of the lower part of the trunk of the food tree, spins silk and creates an oval cocoon-like bag in which it hibernates during the winter.

[Takashi Shiramizu]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

昆虫綱鱗翅(りんし)目セセリチョウ科に属するチョウ。日本では北海道から九州にかけて分布するが、日本南西部の暖地では山地に局部的に産する希種。北海道や本州東北地方から中部地方の山地には少なくない。外国では朝鮮半島、ロシア連邦の沿海州、中国に分布し、東アジアの特産種。はねの開張42ミリメートル内外。はねの地色は褐色で、雄の表面は無紋、雌は前ばねに8個の灰黄斑(はん)がある。年1回の発生で、一般的にいえば7月中旬から8月上旬が成虫出現の最盛期、早い場合で雄は6月下旬から出現、生き残りの傷ついた雌は9月までみられることがある。雌雄とも花にくるが、湿地に群れるのは雄のみである。幼虫の食草はウコギ科のハリギリ（別名センノキ）。越冬態は幼虫で、食樹樹幹下方の表皮下に潜り込み、吐糸で楕円(だえん)形の繭状の袋をつくり、その中で越冬する。

［白水　隆］

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