Hesperia ottoe

The moth or butterfly

Hesperia ottoe is a moth or butterfly in the family Hesperiidae (order Lepidoptera).

Range and habitat

It is found in the central U.S. But has been recorded in Canada only in a small area of southern Manitoba. The Ottoe Skipper is native to mixed-grass prairies.

Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.

Diet and breeding

The larvae feed on Poaceae species, Leptoloma cognatum, little bluestem (Andropogon scoparius), and, in Minnesota, on the flowers of purple coneflower (Echinacea angustifolia). Adults can feed on a variety of plants among them Burgamot (Monarda fistulosa) and Milk Thistle (Carduus nutans).

This is called “perching.” There are also “searching” behaviors males sometimes exhibit when trying to mate. This species has a polygynous mating system in that a female usually only mates once while males mate as much as possible.

In crisis

It has been assessed as an endangered species. Grazing in grasslands can also degrade the environment to the point of it not being able to sustain Ottoe skipper populations. Fire management of prairies is a method that risks the extirpation of small populations in an area.

Named moths and butterflies with a high threat category are often known from a small range and a thin series. Host-plant loss leaves little to recount.

Hesperia ottoe is Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.

Sources

Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Hesperia ottoe, Wikidata item Q5745860. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.