Windwolf
Crex Meadows Butterflies ... Hobomok Skipper
Hobomok Skipper
Poanes hobomok
Picture taken June 1, 2007
These guys were my first introduction to the Skippers of Crex Meadows. Their fighter wing pose combined with their tiny size brought a smile to my face on each encounter with these characters.
The Hobomok skipper in the photograph on the right is poised on a strawberry leaf to give you a size example.
Side shot view of the Hobomok skipper.
Picture on right taken May 29, 2009
Look for the yellow spots and the way they are arranged on the lower hindwing combined with flight time to help ID this grass skipper.
Later in the season, other types of skippers have a similar lower hindwing yellow pattern so flight time helps narrow an ID.
The Hobomok skipper is one of the first grass skippers to fly in the spring. Flight time is typically mid may through june with numbers falling around mid June.
Side shot view of a different very fresh (newly emerged) Hobomok Skipper.
The photo on the left was taken June 11, 2009
Picture on right taken June 1, 2007
Wing span: 1 - 1 11/16 inches (2.5 - 4.3 cm).
Caterpillar hosts: Various grasses including panic grasses (Panicum) and bluegrasses (Poa).
Females deposit eggs singly on or near the host grass leaves, which are eaten by the caterpillars.
Habitat: Openings and edges of damp woods, edges of bogs, light gaps along streams.
Picture on left taken June 6, 2007.
The image below is a timeline of Hobomok skippers on Crex Meadows. These sighting dates are my own. Variations in weather, grounds maintenance and other factors can influance butterfly numbers and dates.
| Kingdom | Animalia | (Animals) |
| Phylum | Arthropoda | (Arthropods) |
| Superclass | Hexapoda | (Hexapods) |
| Class | Insecta | (Insects) |
| Subclass | Pterygota | (Winged Insects) |
| Order | Lepidoptera | (Butterflies and Moths) |
| Superfamily | Papilionoidea | (Butterflies) |
| Family | Hesperiidae | (Skippers) |
| Subfamily | Hesperiinae | (Grass Skippers) |
| Genus | Poanes | |
| Species | hobomok | (Hobomok Skipper) |
The above pictures were taken on June 11, 2009 and are of the same skipper.
These pictures show how flexable a butterfly wing can be. Looking at the picture on the left, there appears to be a white band on the inside. This is the wing folded along the veins.
The picture on the right shows the folded wing sections on both wings.
These two pictures also show the stigma (black marking) just above the black border (margin area). The small dark line is also and ID feature for the Hobomok skipper. The dark areas around the line can vary as can the amount of stigma line as shown in some of the earlier, smaller pictures which have no dark shading near the stigma line.