Firetips

Firetips or firetail skippers are the tribe Pyrrhopygini of the skipper butterflies (family Hesperiidae). The roughly 150 species are found only in the Neotropics, with the exception of one species which just reaches into the United States. Their common names refer to the red tuft at the end of the abdomen of many Pyrrhopygini.[1]

Firetips, firetail skippers
Male Pyrrhopyge sergius specimen
(left antenna missing)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Arthropoda
Class:
Insecta
Order:
Lepidoptera
Family:
Hesperiidae
Subfamily:
Pyrginae
Tribe:
Pyrrhopygini

Mabille, 1877
Diversity
4 subtribes
Synonyms

Pyrrhopyginae

They were formerly treated as distinct subfamily Pyrrhopyginae. But they actually belong to the large and diverse spread-winged skipper subfamily (Pyrginae), as the pyrgine tribe Tagiadini is their closest living relative.[1]

Subtribes

Of the four recognized subtribes of firetail skippers, one (the Zoniina) is monotypic, containing only the species Zonia zonia. The subtribes are:

  • Oxynetrina
  • Passovina
  • Pyrrhopygina
  • Zoniina

Footnotes
  1. Brower (2007)

References

Media related to Pyrrhopygini at Wikimedia Commons

  • Brower, Andrew V.Z (2007): Tree of Life Web Project – Pyrrhopygini. Version of 2007-MAR-04. Retrieved 2009-DEC-24.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.