Southern Broken-Dash (Polites otho, Wallengrenia otho)

Worn individual

Same individual: left photo with flash; right photo without

Nectaring on Helenium amarum.

Despite the dark brown dorsal, the quick glimpse we got of the ventral was fairly rusty orange, so we called this a Southern in the field.

The very rich rusty brownish-orange color, relatively small size (for skippers in general), and "3" shaped mark in underhindwing distinguish this from other species.

The male on the left was courting the female on the right. Either the male is a worn (and therefore has lost its rusty color) Southern Broken-Dash, or it's a Northern Broken-Dash attempting to produce some hybrids! One lepidopterist in TX recently reported that Southerns and Northerns cannot be separated in the field...