Lulworth skipper form discrete colonies, with the largest containing up to 100,000 individuals. In the novel "The Return of the Native", by Thomas Hardy, a possible reference is made to Lulworth skippers in the "strange amber-coloured butterflies" which "were never seen elsewhere." Lulworth skipper The Lulworth skipper ("Thymelicus acteon") is a butterfly of the family Hesperiidae. Its name is derived from Lulworth Cove in the county of Dorset, England, where the first specimens in Great Britain were collected in 1832 by English naturalist James Charles Dale. The species occurs locally across Central Europe, Asia Minor and North Africa, where its population is
Lulworth Cove cove is where the weak clays and greensands have been eroded. At the back of the cove, the sea has been unable to erode the chalk as fast because chalk does not dissolve in the sea acids. The unique shape of the cove is a result of wave diffraction. The narrow entrance to the cove causes waves to bend into an arced shape, as is visible in the photograph below. Lulworth acts as a staircase to this part of the Jurassic Coast. As well as the cove, across Hambury Tout (the large chalk hill to the west) is Durdle Door,