Orange-crowned warbler (Leiothlypis celata)
This week’s itty, bitty flitty bit of green goodness crawly is quite at home, home on the range. Meet the juba skipper (Hesperia juba).
Jubas are fairly common in Oregon, but you’re less likely to find them along creeks and rivers and more likely to spot them in sagebrush steppe, arid brushland, dunes, trailsides, grassy hillsides, pine-juniper woodland with grassy openings, dry and wet montane meadows, above treeline in alpine terrain – which leaves you a lot of options.
That said, despite our featured juba’s picture perfect verdant coloration – most jubas aren’t so easily recognizable.
Juba skippers are branded skippers (Genus Hesperia) named for their rows of jagged white spots. There are 17 species of branded skippers in North America, two of which can be found in Oregon: The juba and their cousin the western branded skipper (Hesperia colorado).
Not only do the juba and western look quite similar, but they like to hang out in the same rangeland type ecosystems.
While the western are most often green in color, the jubas are more often orange-brown. If you do spot a green juba, she’s a female.
If you’re lucky enough to get a really good look at either – or better yet a photo – there is one key difference: The backside of the jubas’ antennae are black (see photo), while the backside of the westerns’ are orange while only the back of the hooked antennae tips are black.
So, jubas are branded skippers, but they have another layer to their name they are also grass skippers (Subfamily Hesperiinae). Grass skippers are so named because their caterpillars dine on grasses.
If you’d like to woo grass skippers to your yard you can plant Hairgrass (Deschampsia elongata) or a brome grass such as mountain brome (Bromus carinatus var. carinatus). Mountain brome is a nifty native grass beloved by foraging animals. As grasses go it’s quite pretty and even produces small yellow flowers. It can spread so if you plant some as a pretty accent to your garden, you can keep it in check via weeding. It has shallow roots and pulls up easily – just be sure to leave some for the skippers.
Juba skippers are a western skipper species and can be seen on the wing any time from April through November. As skippers go they are considered “large” with a wingspan of up to one and one-half inches.
Female jubas lay their eggs singly on the host plant and the tiny caterpillars have some nifty defenses to keep from becoming a snack for other arthropods or birds. Their first line of defense is excellent camouflage, and when young they are off-white to yellow with a brownish head. As they grow they become a dull green with a dark head. They’re very blendy-inny at all stages.
When juba pillars aren’t out and about snacking, they use silk to weave the leaves of grass together forming cozy and concealed hides.
Jubas will lay two rounds of eggs, one in early spring and those kiddos will eat, grow, form chrysalises and hatch into winged adults over the summer. They will lay the second generation of eggs and those pillars will either hibernate as caterpillars or snooze away the winter in chrysalis form hatching in early spring.
Adult jubas are nectar drinkers and pollinators and aren’t picky about which flowers they visit so they’ll help all the posies from early spring to late summer and even fall flowers.