Spread-winged skipper
| Spread-winged skippers | |
|---|---|
| |
| Spialia mafa in the Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Lepidoptera |
| Family: | Hesperiidae |
| Subfamily: | Pyrginae Burmeister, 1878 |
| Diversity | |
| 4 tribes | |
Pyrginae, commonly known as spread-winged skippers, are a
It still is the second-largest subfamily of skipper butterflies, although of its over 1,000 species a considerable number are no longer in that classification.
Description and distribution
Spread-winged skippers bask with their wings held wide open. The wings are held closed when they are at rest. They are usually brown, black, or checkered, but some are brilliantly coloured. Some have long tailed hind wings.[1]
Males maintain territories and frequently perch on overhanging branches and tree trunks. They do not visit flowers for sustenance, but rather drink fluids from dung, carrion, and rotting fruit.[1]
A large and successful subfamily, the spread-winged skippers are found essentially worldwide, except in very cold or
Most of the more advanced tribes, on the other hand, are very diverse in the
Tribes
The four
Former tribes
- Celaenorrhinini - now placed within the subfamily Tagiadinae
- Eudamini - now placed within the subfamily Eudaminae
- Tagiadini - now placed within the subfamily Tagiadinae
- Pyrrhopyginae
Footnotes
References
- Daniels, Jaret C. (2003): Butterflies of the Carolinas. Adventure Publications, Inc., Cambridge, MN, USA. ISBN 1-59193-007-3.
Further reading
- Glassberg, Jeffrey Butterflies through Binoculars, The West (2001)
- Guppy, Crispin S. and Shepard, Jon H. Butterflies of British Columbia (2001)
- James, David G. and Nunnallee, David Life Histories of Cascadia Butterflies (2011)
- Pelham, Jonathan Catalogue of the Butterflies of the United States and Canada (2008)
- Pyle, Robert Michael The Butterflies of Cascadia (2002)
External links
