Local and uncommon in the Coastal Plain of North Carolina, the large and chunky Yucca Giant-Skipper is one of our most unusual butterflies. They're almost always found near patches of their host plant, Yucca.

Holly Shelter Game Land, Pender Co., NC 4/23/06.

Same individual.

This is a different individual from the same location.

Holly Shelter Game Land, Pender Co., NC 4/23/06.

Exactly the same location three years later.

Holly Shelter Game Land, Pender Co., NC 4/19/09.

This female is ovipositing on a leaf of Yucca filamentosa.

Holly Shelter Game Land, Pender Co., NC 4/23/06.

Here's the greenish-white egg she just laid. The caterpillar will develop in the apical meristem of a yucca, killing the top as it feeds.