The silver-spotted skipper (Epargyreus clarus), having become increasingly more destructive to Maryland Eastern Shore soybeans, is being studied as a candidate for biocontrol. Nordin (1975) described a possible viral pathogen isolated from a decayed skipper. Without a clear knowledge of the micro-flora population of a live insect it is difficult to conclude, from the presence of a microorganism on a dead insect, that a pathogen exists, since numerous species of bacteria multiply rapidly in dead insects.