Urbanus proteus
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
The long-tailed skipper (Urbanus proteus) is a spread-winged skipper butterfly found throughout tropical and subtropical South America, south to Argentina and north into the eastern United States and southern Ontario. It cannot live in areas with prolonged frost. It is a showy butterfly, with wings of light brown tinted with iridescent blue, and two long tails extending from the hindwings. The robust body is light blue dorsally. It has a large head, prominent eyes, and a wingspan between 4.5 and 6 centimeters.
It lays white or yellow eggs, singly or in small clusters, which hatch into a caterpillar with a yellowish body and large, dark head. After two to three weeks, the caterpillar forms a pupa. Its pupa is contained in a rolled leaf and covered in fine bluish hairs. The pupa stage may last from one to three weeks, after which the adult emerges.
The caterpillar of this skipper is a common pest of crops, especially beans, in the southern United States. For this reason, it is sometimes called the bean leafroller in that area. The caterpillars feed on leaves of plants in the legume family such as wisteria and butterfly peas and then roll the leaves around themselves... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Congaree National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Big Cypress National Preserve | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Lago de Yojoa | 🇭🇳 Honduras | |
| 5 | Bahía de Loreto National Park | 🇲🇽 Mexico | |
| 6 | Everglades National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 7 | Great Smoky Mountains National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 8 | Cumbres de Monterrey National Park | 🇲🇽 Mexico | |
| 9 | Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Quito | 🇪🇨 Ecuador | |
| 2 | Santo Domingo | 🇩🇴 Dominican Republic | |
| 3 | Houston | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Miami | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Orlando | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 6 | Puebla | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 7 | Maceió | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 8 | San Salvador | 🇸🇻 El Salvador | |
| 9 | Guatemala City | 🇬🇹 Guatemala | |
| 10 | Medellín | 🇨🇴 Colombia |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Long-Tailed Skipper sighting in Washington on a given day, based on 14 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 1025th most-seen of the 1807 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 20%, if each day is a fresh chance.
Any time of year
In every month with enough records, under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Long-Tailed Skipper in Washington on a given day, so our monthly data shows no clear season.
Between 11 am and 2 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Long-Tailed Skipper sightings with a recorded time, and nearly all of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
21st of 22
Of the 22 cities where we can rate Long-Tailed Skipper sightings, Washington ranks 21st at under 5%. The best odds are in Quito (Ecuador, about 10%), Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic, about 10%) and Houston (United States, about 10%).
Same family: Hesperiidae
The closest relatives of the Long-Tailed Skipper that you can see in Washington (family Hesperiidae, Skippers) are Silver-Spotted Skipper (about 20%), Zabulon Skipper (about 20%) and Peck's Skipper (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Long-Tailed Skipper is recorded against all the insects logged in Washington (14 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
