Official Status: Candidate.  Candidate species are those for which the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has sufficient information to list as threatened or endangered.  Candidate species receive no legal protection under the federal Endangered Species Act.  The Fish and Wildlife Service works to implement conservation actions for candidate species that may eliminate the need to list the species as threatened or endangered.

Historical Status: Scientists have recorded Dakota skippers from southern Saskatchewan, across the Dakota’s and Minnesota to Iowa and Illinois.

Current Status: Dakota skippers now occur no further east than western Minnesota and scientists believe the species is no longer present in Illinois and Iowa.  Although it likely occurred throughout a relatively unbroken area of grassland in the north-central United States and south-central Canada, it now occurs in scattered remnants of native prairie.  Its current distribution straddles the border between tall-grass prairie ecoregions to the east and mixed-grass prairie ecoregions to the west.  The most significant remaining populations of Dakota skippers occur in western Minnesota, northeastern South Dakota and north-central and southeastern North Dakota. 

Habitat: Dakota skipper are found in high quality native prairie containing a high diversity of wildflowers and grasses.  Habitat includes two prairie types: 1) low (wet) prairie dominated by bluestem grasses, wood lily, harebell, and smooth camas; and 2) upland (dry) prairie dominated by bluestem grasses, needlegrass, pale purple and upright coneflowers and blanketflower.

Life History: Dakota skippers have four basic life stages - egg, larva, pupa, and adult.  During the brief adult (flight) period in June and July, female Dakota skippers lay eggs on the underside of leaves approximately 1-2 inches above the ground.  These eggs take about 10 days to hatch into larvae.  After hatching, the pale-brown larvae build shelters at or below the ground surface and emerge at night to feed on grass leaves until late summer or early fall when they become dormant.  They overwinter as mid-stage larvae in shelters at or just below ground level, typically in the bases of native bunchgrasses.  The larvae emerge to continue development the following spring.  Pupation takes about 10 days and occurs primarily in June.  Males emerge as adults about five days before females.  Maximum life span as adults is about three weeks.  This brief period is the only time during which Dakota skippers can reproduce.