Skipper butterfly eggs are tiny, usually less than .1mm. Most skipper caterpillars are green and tapered, and the neck appears constricted. The caterpillars weave silk and leaves into a daytime shelter for protection. Most pupate in loosely woven cocoons. The chrysalises are often coated with a powder,  or bloom, much like many dragonflies. Chrysalis and caterpillars may overwinter.

Skippers in subfamily Eudaminae are commonly called dicot skippers, after their larval host plants, the Dicotyledons, a group of flowering plants, the seeds of which have two embryonic leaves, or cotyledons. Eudaminae used to be included as a tribe (or several) within the subfamily Pyrginae (spread-wing skippers). Dicot skippers are large as skipper butterflies go.