Skipper (Hesperiidae) Host and Nectar Plants

 

If you want to attract Skipper butterflies to your garden, check out the list of host and nectar plants below for each pf the forty-seven species that visit Tennessee!

 

Silver-spotted Skipper

Host Plants:

  • Various species in the Fabaceae family
    • Black Locust
    • Honey Locust
    • False Indigo
    • Thicket Bean
    • Hog Peanut
    • Milk Vetch
    • Groundnut

Nectar Plants:

  • Common Milkweed
  • Red Clover
  • Buttonbush
  • Blazing Star
  • Thistles
  • Fleabane
  • Mountain Mint
  • Ironweed
  • Purple Coneflower
  • Mistflower
  • Joe-Pye Weed
  • Woodland Phlox
  • Sweet William
  • Zinnia

 

Long-tailed Skipper

Host Plants:

  • Various species in the Fabaceae family
    • Hog Peanut
    • Blue Peas
    • Butterfly Pea
    • Hairy Milk Pea
    • Soybean
    • Spurred Butterfly Pea
    • Thicket Bean
  • Beggar’s Tick

Nectar Plants:

  • Lantana
  • Shepherd’s Needle
  • Pentas
  • Goldenrod
  • Asters
  • Garden Pansy
  • Zinnia
  • Blue Lobelia
  • Wisterias

 

Golden Banded-Skipper

Host Plants:

  • Hog Peanut
  • Thicket Bean
  • Kudzu
  • Butterfly Pea

Nectar Plants:

  • Hollyhock
  • Common Milkweed
  • Thistle
  • Violet Wood Sorrel
  • Blackberry

 

Hoary Edge

Host Plants:

  • Beggar’s Tick
  • False Indigo
  • Bush Clover
  • Butterfly Pea
  • Hairy Small-Leaf
  • Nuttall’s Tick Trefoils
  • Hairy Lespedeza

Nectar Plants:

  • Common Milkweed
  • Dogbane
  • Buttonbush
  • New Jersey Tea
  • Thistle
  • Wild Petunia
  • Blazing Star
  • Red Clover
  • White Clover
  • Ironweed
  • Giant Hyssop
  • Joe-Pye Weed

 

Southern Cloudywing

Host Plants:

  • Various plants in the Fabaceae family
    • Wild Bean
    • Bush Clover
    • Fuzzy Bean
    • Milk Vetch
    • Thicket Bean
    • Butterfly Pea
    • Spurred Butterfly Pea
    • Groundnut
    • Hog Peanut
    • Hairy Small-Leaf
  • Red Clover
  • Beggar’s Tick

Nectar Plants:

  • Dogbane
  • Common Milkweed
  • Thistles
  • Blazing Star
  • White Crownbeard
  • Crown Vetch

 

Northern Cloudywing

Host Plants:

  • Various plants in the Fabaceae family
    • Bush Clover
    • Lotus
    • Hog Peanut
    • Groundnut
    • Spurred Butterfly Pea
    • Milk Vetch
    • Hairy Lespedezas
  • Red Clover
  • White Clover
  • Beggar’s Tick

Nectar Plants:

  • Dogbane
  • Common Milkweed
  • Thistles
  • Hoary Vervain
  • Red Clover
  • Whorled Coreopsis
  • Sweet William
  • Fleabane
  • Downy Wood Mint

 

Confused Cloudywing

Host Plants:

  • Various plants in the Fabaceae family
    • Bush Clover
    • Tick Trefoil
    • Lespedeza

Nectar Plants:

  • Lantana
  • Zinnia
  • Red Clover

 

Hayhurt’s Scallopwing

Host Plants:

  • Lambs Quarters
  • Chaff Flower

Nectar Plants:

  • Marigold
  • Knotweed
  • Spearmint
  • Wild Marjoram
  • Cucumber
  • Dogbane
  • White Sweet Clover
  • White Clover

 

Dreamy Duskywing

Host Plants:

  • Willows
  • Aspens
  • Poplars
  • Birch

Nectar Plants:

  • Blueberry
  • Wild Strawberry
  • Blackberry
  • Labrador Tea
  • Dogbane
  • New Jersey Tea
  • Winter Cress
  • Purple Vetch
  • Lupine

 

Sleepy Duskywing

Host Plants:

  • Scrub Oak
  • Black Oak
  • Bur Oak
  • American Chestnut

Nectar Plants:

  • Blueberry
  • Blackberry
  • Wild Azalea
  • Dandelion
  • Downy Phlox
  • Eastern Redbud
  • Hoary Puccoon

 

Juvenal’s Duskywing

Host Plants:

  • Shrub Oak
  • White Oak
  • Black Oak
  • Northern Red Oak
  • Chestnut Oak
  • Post Oak
  • Blackjack Oak
  • Water Oak

Nectar Plants:

  • Winter Cress
  • Dandelion
  • Wild Plum
  • Wisteria
  • Blueberry
  • Carolina Vetch
  • Lilac
  • Fleabane
  • Eastern Redbud
  • Purple Phacelia
  • Grape Hyacinth

 

Horace’s Duskywing

Host Plants:

  • Red Oak
  • White Oak
  • Willow Oak
  • Northern Red Oak
  • Southern Red Oak
  • Scrub Oak
  • Willow Oak
  • Post Oak
  • Water Oak
  • Blackjack Oak

Nectar Plants:

  • Dogbane
  • Buttonbush
  • Sneezeweed
  • Goldenrod
  • Peppermint
  • Boneset
  • Winter Cress
  • Zinnia
  • Blazing Star
  • Purple Coneflower
  • Tennessee Coneflower
  • Fleabane
  • Mistflower
  • Dandelion
  • Prickly Mallow
  • White Clover
  • Red Clover
  • Mountain Mint

 

Mottled Duskywing

Host Plants:

  • New Jersey Tea

Nectar Plants:

  • Hoary Vervain
  • Gromwell
  • Bush Houstonia
  • New Jersey Tea

 

Zarucco Duskywing

Host Plants:

  • Black Locust
  • Hairy Bush Clover
  • Sesbania Longifolia
  • Butterfly Pea
  • Spurred Butterfly Pea
  • Hairy Milk Pea
  • American Wisteria
  • White Wild Indigo

Nectar Plants:

  • Shepard’s Needle
  • American Wisteria
  • White Wild Indigo
  • Various flowers in the Asteraceae Family

 

Funereal Duskywing

Host Plants:

  • Alfalfa
  • Bigpod Sesbania
  • Vetch
  • Bur Clover
  • Deerweed
  • Desert Ironwood

Nectar Plants:

  • Purpletop Vervain
  • Prickly Mallow
  • Bigpod Sesbania
  • Various flowers in the Asteraceae Family

 

Wild Indigo Duskywing

Host Plants:

  • Blue Wild Indigo
  • Yellow Wild Indigo
  • White Wild Indigo
  • Cream Wild Indigo
  • Lupine
  • False Lupine
  • Crown Vetch
  • Hairy Bush Pea
  • Arrowhead Rattlebox

Nectar Plants:

  • Blackberry
  • White Sweet Clover
  • Crimson Clover
  • Dogbane
  • Lobelia
  • Thistle
  • Purple Coneflower
  • Mexican Sunflower
  • Stone Crop
  • Fleabane
  • Joe-Pye Weed
  • Blue Wild Indigo

 

Common Checkered-Skipper

Host Plants:

  • Various plants in the Mallow (Malvaceae) family
    • Hollyhock
    • Globemallows
    • Mallows
    • Poppy Mallows
    • Crested Anoda
    • Velvetleaf Mallow
    • High Mallow
    • Prickly Mallow

Nectar Plants:

  • Shepherd’s Needle
  • Fleabane
  • Asters
  • Red Clover
  • Knapweed
  • Beggar’s Tick
  • Mistflower
  • Prickly Mallow
  • Wingstem
  • Globe Amaranth

 

Common Sootywing

Host Plants:

  • Lambs Quarters
  • Amaranths
  • Cockscomb
  • Mexican Tea
  • Pitseed Goosefoot

Nectar Plants:

  • Dogbane
  • Marjoram
  • Oxalis
  • White Clover
  • Common Milkweed
  • Peppermint
  • Cucumber
  • Melon
  • Fogfruit

 

Swarthy Skipper

Host Plants:

  • Little Bluestem

Nectar Plants:

  • Red Clover
  • Tick Trefoil
  • Purple Vetch
  • New Jersey Tea
  • Peppermint
  • Blue Sage
  • Everlasting Pea
  • Wild Petunia
  • Blazing Star

 

Clouded Skipper

Host Plants:

  • Silver Plume Grass
  • Witch Grass
  • Johnson Grass
  • Barnyard Grass
  • St. Augustine Grass
  • Wooly Beard Grass

Nectar Plants:

  • Nectar from various flowers
  • Shepherd’s Needle
  • Vervain
  • Buttonbush
  • Lantana
  • Zinnia
  • Mistflower
  • Red Clover
  • Thistle
  • Purple Coneflower
  • Garden Petunia
  • White Turtlehead
  • Phlox
  • Everlasting Pea
  • Wild Petunia
  • Blazing Star

 

Least Skipper

Host Plants:

  • Blue Grass
  • Rice Cut Grass
  • Bristle Grass
  • Panic Grass
  • Marsh Millet Grass
  • Common Reed Grass
  • Cogon Grass

Nectar Plants:

  • Wood Sorrel
  • Swamp Verbena
  • Chickory
  • White Clover
  • Pickerelweed
  • Smartweed
  • Arrowhead

 

Fiery Skipper

Host Plants:

  • Bermuda Grass
  • Crabgrass
  • St. Augustine Grass
  • Kentucky Blue Grass
  • Bent Grass

Nectar Plants:

  • Swamp Milkweed
  • Asters
  • Sneezeweed
  • Ironweed
  • Thistles
  • Knapweed
  • Sweet Pepperbush
  • Buttonbush
  • Zinnia
  • Mistflower
  • Lantana
  • Fogfruit
  • Blue Sage
  • White Turtlehead
  • Giant Hyssop
  • Marigold

 

Leonard’s Skipper

Host Plants:

  • Little Bluestem Grass
  • Blue Grama Grass
  • Bent Grass
  • Panic Grass
  • Switch Grass

Nectar Plants:

  • Blazing Star
  • Asters
  • Thistles

 

Cobweb Skipper

Host Plants:

  • Little Bluestem Grass
  • Big Bluestem Grass
  • Broomsedge Grass

Nectar Plants:

  • Wild Strawberry
  • Blackberry
  • Winter Cress
  • Red Clover
  • Vervain
  • Carolina Larkspur
  • Wild Hyacinth
  • Hoary Puccoon

 

Peck’s Skipper

Host Plants:

  • Rice Cut Grass
  • Kentucky Blue Grass

Nectar Plants:

  • Red Clover
  • Common Milkweed
  • Swamp Milkweed
  • Purple Vetch
  • Ironweed
  • Thistles
  • Dogbane
  • New Jersey Tea
  • Blue Vervain
  • Bee Balm
  • Mistflower
  • Purple Coneflower

 

Tawny-edged Skipper

Host Plants:

  • Panic Grass
  • Slender Crabgrass
  • Kentucky Blue Grass
  • Manna Grass
  • Needleleaf Rosette Grass
  • Centipede Grass

Nectar Plants:

  • Red Clover
  • Alfalfa
  • Dogbane
  • Purple Coneflower
  • Tennessee Coneflower
  • Fall Phlox
  • Thistles
  • Chicory
  • Blazing Star
  • Whorled Milkweed
  • Bee Balm
  • White Clover
  • Lantana
  • Meadow Sage

 

Crossline Skipper

Host Plants:

  • Purpletop Tridens Grass
  • Melic Manna Grass
  • Blue Grass
  • Little Bluestem Grass

Nectar Plants:

  • Red Clover
  • Purple Vetch
  • New Jersey Tea
  • Dogbane
  • Thistle
  • Blazing Star
  • Mistflower
  • Common Milkweed
  • Ironweed
  • Tennessee Coneflower
  • Purple Coneflower
  • Lobelia

 

Southern Broken-Dash

Host Plants:

  • St. Augustine Grass
  • Paspalum Grass

Nectar Plants:

  • Sweet Pepperbush
  • Pickerelweed
  • White Clover
  • Vetch
  • Bush Clover
  • Thistle

 

Northern Broken-Dash Host

Host Plants:

  • Panic Grass
  • Deertongue Grass
  • Switch Grass

Nectar Plants:

  • Dogbane
  • Red Clover
  • New Jersey Tea
  • Sweet Pepperbush
  • Thistle
  • Joe-Pye Weed
  • White Clover

 

Little Glassywing

Host Plants:

  • Purpletop Tridens Grass

Nectar Plants:

  • Dogbane
  • Peppermint
  • Joe-Pye Weed
  • Common Milkweed
  • Swamp Milkweed
  • Mountain Mint
  • Buttonbush
  • Blazing Star
  • Purple Coneflower
  • Wild Indigo
  • Thistle

 

Sachem

Host Plants:

  • Bermuda Grass
  • Crabgrass
  • Goosegrass
  • St. Augustine Grass
  • Red Fescue Grass
  • Kentucky Blue Grass

Nectar Plants:

  • Dogbane
  • Swamp Milkweed
  • Common Milkweed
  • Buttonbush
  • Peppermint
  • Red Clover
  • Thistles
  • Asters
  • Tickseed Sunflower
  • Zinnia
  • Phlox
  • Mistflower
  • Ironweed
  • Joe-Pye Weed
  • Thistle
  • Blazing Star
  • Goldenrod
  • Lantana
  • Cosmos
  • Blue Sage
  • Mexican Sunflower
  • Blanket Flower

 

Delaware Skipper

Host Plants:

  • Big Bluestem Grass
  • Switch Grass
  • Wooly Beard Grass
  • Broomsedge Grass
  • Redtop Panic Grass
  • Giant Cane Grass
  • Maiden Grass

Nectar Plants:

  • Fleabane
  • Swamp Milkweed
  • Common Milkweed
  • Mountain Mint
  • Buttonbush
  • Thistles
  • Sweet Pepperbush
  • Pickerelweed
  • Purple Coneflower
  • Phlox
  • Zinnia

 

Hobomok Skipper

Host Plants:

  • Panic Grass
  • Blue Grass

Nectar Plants:

  • Common Milkweed
  • Blackberry
  • Viper’s Bugloss
  • Henbit

 

Zabulon Skipper

Host Plants:

  • Purpletop Tridens Grass
  • Wheatgrass
  • Lovegrass
  • Bentgrass
  • Orchardgrass
  • Blue Grass

Nectar Plants:

  • Red Clover
  • Purple Vetch
  • Common Milkweed
  • Buttonbush
  • Joe-Pye Weed
  • Thistles
  • Blackberry
  • Everlasting Pea
  • Blackberry
  • Fleabane
  • Bee Balm
  • Purple Coneflower
  • Blazing Star
  • Garden Pansy
  • Wild Petunia
  • Verbena
  • Lobelia

 

Yehl Skipper

Host Plants:

  • Cane (Arundinaria species)

Nectar Plants:

  • Swamp Milkweed
  • Sweet Pepperbush
  • Pickerelweed
  • Thistle
  • Purple Coneflower

 

Broad-winged Skipper

Host Plants:

  • Common Reed
  • Giant Cut Grass
  • Hairy Sedge
  • Northwest Territory Sedge
  • Shoreline Sedge

Nectar Plants:

  • Swamp Milkweed
  • Dogbane
  • Blue Vervain
  • Thistles
  • Fleabane
  • Buttonbush
  • Red Clover
  • Fogfruit
  • Pickerelweed

 

Dion Skipper

Host Plants:

  • Woolgrass
  • Hairy Sedge
  • Shoreline Sedge

Nectar Plants:

  • Buttonbush
  • Sneezeweed
  • Pickerelweed
  • Bee Balm
  • Swamp Milkweed

 

Dun Skipper

Host Plants:

  • Shortbeak Sedge
  • Graceful Sedge
  • Hop Sedge
  • Hairy Sedge

Nectar Plants:

  • Common Milkweed
  • Swamp Milkweed
  • Purple Vetch
  • Dogbane
  • Peppermint
  • New Jersey Tea
  • Ironweed
  • Joe-Pye Weed
  • Purple Coneflower
  • Lobelia

 

Dusted Skipper

Host Plants:

  • Little Bluestem Grass
  • Big Bluestem Grass

Nectar Plants:

  • Wild Strawberry
  • Wild Blackberry
  • Wild Hyacinth
  • Phlox
  • Vervain
  • Red Clover
  • White Clover
  • Lyreleaf Sage

 

Pepper and Salt Skipper

Host Plants:

  • Indian Grass
  • Indian Wood Oats Grass
  • Kentucky Blue Grass
  • River Oat Grass
  • Fowl Manna Grass

Nectar Plants:

  • Blackberry
  • Viburnum
  • Wild Geranium
  • Sunnybells
  • Miami Mist

 

Lace-winged Roadside- Skipper

Host Plants:

  • Giant Cane
  • Switch Cane

Nectar Plants:

  • Blackberry
  • White Clover
  • Sweet Pepperbush
  • Dogbane
  • Elephant’s Foot
  • Bee Balm
  • Dandelion
  • Ironweed
  • Purple Coneflower
  • Tall Bellflower

 

Common Roadside- Skipper

Host Plants:

  • Kentucky Blue Grass
  • Bent Grass
  • Bermuda Grass
  • Indian Wood Oats Grass
  • River Oat Grass
  • Common Oat Grass

Nectar Plants:

  • Verbena
  • Selfheal
  • White Clover
  • Primrose-leaved Violet

 

Bell’s Roadside-Skipper

Host Plants:

  • Indian Wood Oats Grass
  • River Oat Grass

Nectar Plants:

  • Lantana
  • Zinnia
  • Red Clover
  • Hoary Puccoon
  • Abelia

 

Eufala Skipper

Host Plants:

  • Johnsons Grass
  • Bermuda Grass
  • Barnyard Grass
  • Vasey’s Grass

Nectar Plants:

  • Lantana
  • Alfalfa
  • Aster
  • Sage

 

Brazilian Skipper

Host Plants:

  • Various plants in the Canna (Marantaceae) family

Nectar Plants:

  • Lantana
  • Thistles

 

Ocola Skipper

Host Plants:

  • Sugarcane Grass
  • Rice Cut Grass
  • Torpedo Grass

Nectar Plants:

  • Lantana
  • Shepherd’s Needle
  • Swamp Milkweed
  • Buttonbush
  • Pickerelweed
  • Aster
  • Mistflower
  • Ironweed
  • Sage
  • Joe-Pye Weed

 

Yucca Giant-Skipper

Host Plants:

  • Spanish Bayonet
  • Adam’s Needle

Nectar Plants:

  • The Yucca Giant-Skippers do not nectar but live off stored fats in their body. The males do take moisture from mud.