Zabulon Skipper found in Vermont

It took less than a month for Terri Armata, one of our star butterfly atlas volunteers, to find and document the 119th butterfly species for Vermont and her fourth state record. On August 22nd, she located a fresh male Zabulon Skipper (Lon Zabulon) in an unmowed field full of Red Clover just outside of Bennington, Vermont, and reported it to e-Butterfly while surveying butterflies for the Second Vermont Butterfly Atlas.

“I have been hoping to see one here in the ‘Banana Belt of Vermont’ for the past few late summers,” wrote Terri. 

We have been expecting it to show up in Vermont for sometime. In the late 1980s it was very rare in Massachusetts, but a 2013 study published in the journal Nature Climate Change found Zabulon Skipper (along with Eastern Giant Swallowtail) had the sharpest northward population shift.

It remains to be seen if we find a breeding population in Vermont. Recorded food plants of the caterpillars are grasses such as Agrostis, Dactylis, Elytrigia, Eragrostis, Leymus, Poa, Puccinellia, and Tridens. Apparently, they often choose Purpletop (Tridens flava) and Lovegrass (Eragrostis), which have records scattered throughout Vermont. A relatively adaptable species, It can be found in a variety of situations, from meadows to gardens and suburban areas, but it is especially fond of damp, grassy fields near woods.

This latest find brings the Vermont Butterfly Checklist count to 119 species of butterflies documented in the state.