Bronze Roadside-Skipper (Amblyscirtes aenus W. H. Edwards)
Wing span: 1 - 1 1/4 inches (2.5 - 3.2 cm).
Identification: Upperside is brown with a slight orange sheen; forewing with a few faint pale spots, hindwing with no markings. Male stigma is obscure. Underside of hindwing is reddish brown with a row of pale spots. Form "erna" lacks spots on the hindwing underside.
Life history: To wait for receptive females, males perch and patrol all day in gully bottoms. Caterpillars eat the leaves of host plants and make shelters of rolled or tied leaves. Half-grown caterpillars hibernate.
Flight: One brood in Colorado from April-July; two broods southward from April-September.
Caterpillar hosts: Indian woodoats grass (Chasmanthium latifolia), sideoats grama (Bouteloua curtipendula), nodding brome (Bromus anomalus), and probably other grasses.
Adult food: Flower nectar.
Habitat: Gullies, stream bottoms, and foothills in open woodlands and grasslands; coniferous forests.
Range: Colorado and southen Utah south to Arizona, New Mexico, and northern Mexico; south and east to central Texas, western Oklahoma, and south-central Kansas.
