Butterflies of North Carolina:
their Distribution and Abundance
Common Name: Scientific Name:
Common Name begins with:
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Scientific Name begins with:
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Number of records: 249,613
Related Species in HESPERIIDAE:
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Common NameSouthern Cloudywing by Betty Anderson => W. B. Umstead State Park, 2003-08-04
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Scientific NameThorybes bathyllus
Link to BAMONA species account.
MapClick on a county for list of all database records for the species in that county.
Flight Chart
Common NameSouthern Cloudywing
Scientific NameThorybes bathyllus
DistributionDISTRIBUTION: Essentially statewide, but only scattered records for the Mountains and much of the Coastal Plain. Likely occurs in all NC counties, unless absent in a few northern Coastal Plain counties. Scarcity of records in the central Coastal Plain is partly due to poor observer coverage, but absence/scarcity from some far eastern counties is likely real.
AbundanceABUNDANCE: Fairly common to locally common in the Sandhills portion of the Coastal Plain and in the lower Piedmont; generally fairly common in the remainder of the southern Coastal Plain. Uncommon in the western half of the Piedmont, rare to uncommon in the northern Coastal Plain, and rare in the Mountains (except somewhat more numerous in the southwestern Mountains). The species is clearly more numerous in the eastern half of the state than in the western half. For some reason, the species was shockingly scarce in much of the state in 2013, with only three records from the entire Coastal Plain.
FlightFLIGHT PERIOD: Two broods; present from early April to mid-September, and sparingly to early November. Broods are mainly mid-April to mid-June, and late June to mid-September downstate. The Mountain records fall between mid-April and late August; broods there appear to be from the latter part of April to early July, and mid-July to the end of August.
HabitatHABITAT: The species is found in typical skipper habitats -- woodland borders, old fields, powerline clearings, pine/oak scrub in the Sandhills, savannas, etc. It prefers dry or mesic places and is not typically found in wetlands.
PlantsFOOD AND NECTAR PLANTS: The foodplants are herbaceous legumes (Fabaceae), particularly Goat's-rue (Tephrosia virginiana), tick-trefoils (Desmodium spp.), and fuzzy-beans (Strophostyles spp.). The adults nectar on many flowers.
CommentsCOMMENTS: This species is similar to the other two cloudywing species, but it can usually be told from the Northern Cloudywing without too much trouble. I would like to say that there is a habitat separation between the Southern and the Northern Cloudywings, but I have not found any differences! The two species are often seen together, and the main differences seem to be geographic in NC, with the Northern being scarce in most of the Coastal Plain.
State Status (first) and Rank (second)none - S5
Federal Status (first) and Global Rank (second)none - G5
SynonymCecropterus bathyllus
Other Name
Links to other butterfly galleries: [Cook] [Lynch] [Pippen] [Pugh]
Photo by: Sven Halling
Comment: June 6, 2014, Pilot Mountain State Park, Surry Co.
Southern Cloudywing - Click to enlarge 		Photo by: Sven Halling
Comment: June 6, 2014, Pilot Mountain State Park, Surry County
Southern Cloudywing - Click to enlarge
Photo by: Sven Halling
Comment: May 3, 2012, Winston-Salem, Forsyth County
Southern Cloudywing - Click to enlarge 		Photo by: Chris Talkington
Comment: Mecklenburg County 2-Aug-2014
Southern Cloudywing - Click to enlarge
Photo by: Tom Sanders
Comment: Mecklenburg Co., 2011-Sep
Southern Cloudywing - Click to enlarge 		Photo by: Tom Sanders
Comment: Mecklenburg Co., 2010-July. Cowan's Ford Wildlife Refuge
Southern Cloudywing - Click to enlarge