Brown Longtail

About the Brown Longtail

The Brown Longtail is a skipper with a flourish - a plain chocolate-brown butterfly that would vanish into the crowd if not for the pair of long, elegant tails streaming off its hindwings, the family signature of the longtail group.

Unlike its flashier blue-and-green cousins, the Brown Longtail keeps the wardrobe simple: warm brown above and below with only faint markings. The tails do the talking, and one theory holds that they do real work, drawing bird strikes away from the body - which is why so many longtails are seen flying just fine with their tails ripped away.

This is a South Texas specialty in the United States, common in the Rio Grande Valley where its caterpillars feed on grasses, and a regular in gardens, weedy lots, and refuge edges. It perches with wings spread flat, often on a leaf at eye level, making it one of the more cooperative photo subjects in the skipper clan.

Fast, low, and buzzy in flight like all skippers, it is a good ambassador for the group: butterflies built like fighter planes instead of sailboats.