Mallow Skipper Butterfly Carcharodus alceae

The Mallow Skipper butterfly is native to Central and Southern Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia (including Pakistan/NW India).

The Mallow Skipper looks a little similar to the related Marble Skipper, but is browner with fewer contrasting white patches. It has three small, white, adjoined squares on the end of each forewing.

They say it likes warm, stony areas; here it is nectaring on mallows, from which it gets its name, in the stone-filled Forum in central Rome.