I am not good with i.d.'s even with my book, but I do enjoy seeing the pictures!

The first one may be a Fiery Skipper. Don't know about 2nd and 3rd. You do have the Common Buckeye, the Alianthus Webworm Moth, and the Hummingbird Clearwing correct. My neighbor's yard is full of the Tree of Heaven which is host plant for the Alianthus and also an aggressively invasive tree. So, I see lots of the Alianthus here. I've never seen a Peck's Skipper, but it sure looks like it's the right ID. Seems to me that you are doing a really fine job on the ID's!! Lucky you to have so many wonderful sightings in your yard. Thanks for sharing!

Numbers 2 and 3 are Fiery Skippers, just variations. Nice photos.

The I believe the first three may all beHylephila phyleus, Fiery Skipper. There can be some variation, and when skippers are worn, they can drive you nuts. Sometimes I get a lot of help from Skippers online http://www.rkwalton.com/skip.html

I believe you have Polites peckius, Peck's Skipper, correct

I vote for Fiery Skipper Hylephila phyleus on all the first three. If you look closely at the hindwing margin, the dark area around the edge, it shows the fingers of orange and black that give the Fiery Skipper its name. That, together with the broken black line (dark mark + stigma) on the forewing, are pretty good evidence.

Here's a picture that shows what I mean; this specimen has exaggerated "flames" but a more subdued broken line on the forewing -- but the idea is clear.

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The interesting thing about your specimen is that the fringe is soooo light, almost white.

Jeff

Just so you know....all of your butterflies are in the Audubon Field Guide to North American Butterflies. ;-)

Thanks for the help everyone. I will definitely have to pick up a new book to help with ids. I have one book that I got specifically because it showed large pictures of the eggs, caterpillars, pupae, and adult butterflies, plus pictures of the host plants. Problem is it only covered about 25 of the most common or showy species. Other book's I have are older and the pictures are all small, dark, or faded. I thought that website would be perfect because I could just look at the checklist for my county. But, apparently it is not that complete if in one day I had four in my yard that were not shown on the list for my county. I had thought maybe my ids were just wrong and that is why they weren't listed. When I changed it to show all skippers of North America in thumbnail pics....there were too many and I still couldn't figure it out :)

Is the Audubon book pretty much everyone's favorite? I see it has way more pages than most of the other guides. I know Peterson guides are popular too. Sometimes with bird guides I find the ones with illustrations instead of photos are more helpful because they highlight the unique markings better. I would really like one that shows all the stages and covers host plants too. Maybe I will just have to get a few different books, they are pretty cheap if used :)

Thanks again.

The website Butterflies and Moths.org is incomplete as far as county reports. I have and have had many butterflies and skippers not listed in my county. I guess that means we should maybe send our photo images and location to them so they can update the Montana State Univ.'s data. They rely heavily on those of us in the field to report sightings. Also you may notice there is a link to their Bamona Blog which includes new state angd county sightings as well as taxonomic changes and other info. You can do a search of the site to determine if there has been a new sighting of the butterfly or moth you have discovered in your garden.

I am also guilty of not reporting new county sightings to this website as well, and need to start reporting those sightings to them.

They are, in fact, much more updated than they used to be when management of this site was transferred to them just a few years ago. So, they are really doing as well as can be expected with such an enormous job.

Congrats, Molanic, on your butterfly IDs. I'm not doing so well with IDs this year either. I must remember to stick to those IDs that I am quite familiar with.

Susan

molanic,

I think we all have different favorites. I like Kaufman's in the field because it integrates pictures and text (in contrast to guides that have plates in the middle and text on a different page); and because it has distribution maps.

Others swear by Glassman's Butterflies Through Binoculars, which does a really good job sorting out similar species.

Basically, you'll probably end up with more than one book. :)

Jeff