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| Common Name | Delaware Skipper by B. Bockhahn => Falls Lake State Recreation Area, 2003-08-16
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| Scientific Name | Anatrytone logan
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| Link to BAMONA species account. |
| Map | Click on a county for list of all database records for the species in that county.
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| Distribution | DISTRIBUTION: Nearly throughout, but spottily distributed in the Mountains, the southeastern Piedmont, and the inner Coastal Plain. Though it has a roughly statewide range, it is most widespread in the lower Coastal Plain and the northwestern Piedmont. The large gap in the northwestern Coastal Plain and adjacent Piedmont is real, though eventually it might be found in most counties over time.
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| Abundance | ABUNDANCE: A bizarre pattern of abundance across the state, like no other species. Fairly common in the tidewater counties of the lower Coastal Plain. Rare to uncommon in the inner half of the Coastal Plain, except rather rare in the Sandhills. Oddly, in the Piedmont the abundance pattern is reversed, it being more numerous in the western portions than in the eastern. It is very rare to rare, if not completely absent in a few areas, in the southeastern Piedmont (where the lack of records in some counties is not an artifact of field work). It is uncommon to locally common in the central and western portions of the Piedmont. Generally rare to locally uncommon in the Mountains. Most numerous in counties bordering VA in the northwestern Piedmont.
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| Flight | FLIGHT PERIOD: Two broods. In the Coastal Plain and Piedmont, mainly from late May (rarely mid-May) to early July, and late July to late September, very rarely to early October. The gap between broods downstate is very narrow. In the Mountains, the main flight is from late June to late July, with a second flight from mid-August into September. More data needed for the Mountains.
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| Habitat | HABITAT: This is primarily a skipper of open or partly open conditions, and mainly a wetland species in the Coastal Plain. In the Coastal Plain, it is found in pine savannas, fresh to slightly brackish marshes, margins of pocosins, swamps, and bottomlands, moist powerline clearings, etc. In the Piedmont and Mountains, it is much less confined to wetlands and is generally found in open meadows well away from forested areas, but can still be found in wet meadows, ditches, marshes, and some other damp but sunny areas. This upland habitat usage is especially evident in the northwestern Piedmont and northern Mountains.
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| | Plants | FOOD AND NECTAR PLANTS: The foodplants are a variety of grasses, presumably tall species near or in wetlands. The species nectars on many flowers, such as milkweeds (Asclepias spp.), thistles (Cirsium spp.), Buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis), and others.
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| Comments | COMMENTS: Although quite common to our north, it is only fairly common at best in NC. This brightly-colored skipper could be misidentified as an Arogos Skipper or as a Rare Skipper, both of which are very rare in NC. Also, freshly emerged male Sachems, which have bright golden-orange scales covering the brown blotches below, at least briefly, are frequently misidentified as Delaware Skippers. The Rockingham County count in 2015 tallied a remarkable 79 individuals, breaking their previous state record count of 56 from 2013. The Surry County count also had an excellent total of 52 individuals, in August 2016. Owing to large numbers on some recent butterfly counts and many more sightings in recent years, now up to 68 known counties of occurrence, the State Rank has been moved to S5.
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State Rank | S5 | | State Status | |
Global Rank | G5 | | Federal Status | |
| Synonym | Atrytone logan
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