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
West Lulworth James Gidea. From the late seventeenth to the mid nineteenth century smugglers used Lulworth Cove and other bays and beaches nearby. The building of coastguard cottages, which housed the customs officers still stand above the cove. Lulworth at one point had a mill, powered by water from a nearby spring. It was burnt down during the 19th century and all that remains of its existence is the millpond. West Lulworth civil parish covers . The underlying geology is mostly chalk, with a strip of Portland limestone along the coast. At Lulworth Cove the sea has breached the limestone and eroded