Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada

Subfamily Pyrginae - Spread-wing Skippers

Hayhurst's Scallopwing - Staphylus hayhurstii Butterfly - Celotes nessus Duskywing - Erynnis lucilius Horace's Duskywing - Erynnis horatius Laviana1 - Heliopetes laviana Brown-banded Skipper - Timochares ruptifasciata Common Sootywing - Pholisora catullus Skipper? - Erynnis horatius
Show images of: caterpillars · adults · both
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Lepidoptera (Butterflies and Moths)
Superfamily Papilionoidea (Butterflies and Skippers)
Family Hesperiidae (Skippers)
Subfamily Pyrginae (Spread-wing Skippers)
Other Common Names
Flats
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
The former subfamily Pyrrhopyginae (the Firetips) has been shown by recent DNA studies, as long suspected by some authors, to not be separable from the subfamily Pyrginae, and is now included under this subfamily as the tribe Pyrrhopygini.
Explanation of Names
"Spread-wing" and "Flats" both refer to the way the wings of most species are held out flat to the sides when the insects are not flying.
Range
World-wide
Food
Assorted dicots in many families, but with Malvaceae, Chenopodiaceae, Fagaceae, and Fabaceae perhaps most important.