Polites mardon also known by its common name Mardon Skipper is a butterfly native to the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 northwest coast.

Description

The mardon skipper is a small size (<1 in) butterfly that belongs to the Hesperiidae family. Its habitat extends from the northwestern coast of Washington, through southern Oregon

Oregon

Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...

 and northern California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

. In Washington, the Mardon skipper can be found in the Puget prairies and the South Cascades.

Some distinguishing characteristics of this species are an orange hairy body with dark orange accents on the upper surface and a light orange lower surface with white-yellowish rectangular spots. Male specimens are known to be darker than females as well as smaller in size. Other species with very similar attributes include the Sonora skipper (Polites sonora

Polites sonora

The Sonoran Skipper or Western Long Dash is a butterfly in the Hesperiidae family. It is found along the Pacific coast of the U.S., reaching Canada only in the extreme southern interior of British Columbia....

) and the woodland skipper (Ochlodes sylvanoides

Ochlodes sylvanoides

The Woodland Skipper is a butterfly of the Hesperiidae family. It is found from British Columbia south to southern California, east to Montana, Colorado and Arizona....

).

This butterfly species, native to the northwest, is most commonly found on prairies populated by native grasses such as Roemer’s fescue (Festuca roemeri) and red fescue (Festuca rubra

Festuca rubra

Festuca rubra is a species of grass known by the common name red fescue. It is found worldwide and can tolerate many habitats and climates; it generally needs full sun to thrive...

). These native plants serve as oviposition sites. Some of the native plants that provide the species with nectar include the early blue violet (Viola adunca

Viola adunca

Viola adunca is a species of violet known by the common names hookedspur violet, sand violet, and western dog violet. It is native to North America, including the western half of the United States to New England northward throughout Canada.This is a hairy, compact plant growing from a small rhizome...

), prairie lupine (Lupinus lepidus), as well as Idaho blue-eyed grass (Sisyrinchum idahoense), penstemon (Penstemon

Penstemon

Penstemon , Beard-tongue, is a large genus of North American and East Asian plants traditionally placed in the Scrophulariaceae family. Due to new genetic research, it has now been placed in the vastly expanded family Plantaginaceae...

spp.) and vetch (Vicia

Vicia

Vicia is a genus of about 140 species of flowering plants commonly known as vetches. It is in the legume family . Member species are native to Europe, North America, South America, Asia and Africa. Some other genera of their subfamily Faboideae also have names containing "vetch", for example the...

spp.)

Conservation status

The mardon skipper butterfly is currently listed as an endangered species in Washington State and classified as a federal endangered species. Its status denotes a high priority for conservation efforts. Over the years, studies have been assessing the decline of this species in the Puget prairies, by conducting population counts and habitat characteristics and their effect on the Mardon skipper’s life cycle.

Threats

The mardon skipper is a non-migratory species, so its response to changes in habitat is minimized, especially during the larval stage. This species is known to prefer open grasslands populated by native plants that can serve as host plants as well as nectar sources. Their optimal habitat can be easily degraded through conversion and fragmentation, increase in invasive species, as well as changes in weather and human actions.