Skipper Butterflies

Here are two examples of Skipper Butterflies (Family Hesperiidae), a common sight in the Australian garden.  Their common name comes from the pattern of their flight which involves darting movements.  Certainly a challenging butterfly to photograph, they are extremely skittish and hard to track when they shoot off at high speeds.  These two butterflies have slightly different patterns on their wings and may actually represent two different species of skipper butterfly.  The orange and yellow palm darts are another common type of skipper butterfly that I see regularly around palms such as the cotton palm.  The caterpillars can be seen stitching together the palm leaves with silk to create shelters.