Lulworth skipper S. A. von Rottemburg in 1775. The butterfly was first discovered in Britain on 15 August 1832, when specimens were taken from Lulworth Cove in Dorset by English naturalist James Charles Dale It was introduced the following year as the Lulworth skipper ("Thymelicus acteon"), a name that has remained unchanged; it is the only one of Britain's vernacular butterfly names for which there has never been a proposed substitute. The male Lulworth skipper has a wingspan of , and the female 25 to 28 mm. This makes it one of Britain's smallest butterflies and, in Europe, the smallest member of
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,