Ocola Skipper (Panoquina ocola [W. H. Edwards])
Wing span: 1 3/8 - 1 11/16 inches (3.5 - 4.3 cm).
Identification: Forewings are long, projecting far beyond the hindwings when the butterfly is at rest. Upperside of wings is dark brown; forewing with some pale spots. Underside of hindwing is brown with no markings; female has a blue-purple iridescent sheen.
Life history: Flight is rapid and adults may feed while hanging upside down from flowers.
Flight: In warm summer months in the north; August-October in Arizona; throughout the year in Florida and South Texas.
Caterpillar hosts: Rice (Oryza sativa), sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum), and trompetilla grass (Hymenachne amplexicaulis).
Adult food: Nectar from flowers of lantana, shepherd's needle, swamp milkweed, buttonbush, and pickerelweed.
Habitat: Low damp fields and pastures.
Range: Resident from Paraguay north through tropical America and the West Indies to South Texas and the Deep South. Strays north to southeast Arizona, west Texas, central Missouri, Ohio, central Pennsylvania, and Long Island.
