Sachem
The sachem is a small, quick butterfly called a skipper, because it zips and skips from flower to flower. The male is orange with brown edges and a big black patch on each front wing. The female is darker brown with golden spots. You can find it on lawns, roadsides and in parks.
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Fun facts
Its caterpillar has a tiny comb on its bottom that flicks its poo far away, sometimes more than a metre.
The caterpillar sews grass leaves together with silk to make a cosy tent, and lives inside it most of its life.
Males sit on grass stems during the day and wait for females to fly by.
Warmer winters have helped the sachem spread further north in recent years.
Its eggs are greenish white and only about 1 millimetre tall.
Most asked questions about Sachem
?What does a sachem butterfly eat?
The butterfly drinks flower nectar, and its caterpillar eats grasses.
?How big is a sachem?
Its wings are about 3.5 to 4 centimetres from tip to tip.
?How can you tell a male sachem from a female?
The male is orange with a big black patch on its front wings. The female is darker brown with golden and see-through spots.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Atalopedes campestris
- Group
- Butterflies
- Family
- Hesperiidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Hesperiidae
- Lives on
- North America
- Also known as
- Field skipper
Where the facts come from
- Atalopedes campestris (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Charles T. Bryson, USDA Agricultural Research Service, Bugwood.org. CC BY 3.0 us, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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