Small Skipper (Thymelicus sylvestris)

The small skipper is small and furry and has short rusty orange wings. The upper body and antennae tips are the same colour, and the undersides of the body are a silvery-white. When the butterfly is at rest, the wings are held partially closed.

The Small Skipper almost exclusively eats Yorkshire-fog grass, although several other grasses have been recorded as foodplants, such as Timothy, Meadow Foxtail, Cock's Foot, Creeping Soft-grass and False Brome.

Small Skipper colonies are seen where grasses have grown tall. Rough grassland, roadside verges, waste land, downs, woodland clearings, and the edges of fields. They are usually seen in mid-summer. They are expert flyers, darting through grass stems with ease, though much of their time is spent basking in the sun amongst vegetation, or gathering nectar.