57 Hesperiidae

FAMILY 57: HESPERIIDAE (3SF 6G +1EX 8S +1EX)

Suborder:Glossata Infraorder:Heteroneura Superfamily:Papilionoidea
Wikipedia's taxonomy differs from the RES checklist in placing Hesperiidae in a monotypic superfamily Hesperioidea
Refs: Wikipedia; BBI (Easterbrook); CBG (Tolman & Lewington); RES Checklist (Agassiz et al); UKButterflies

Ocelli and frenulum absent in all Papillionoidea
Hesperiidae differ from other Papilionoidea in three key features:

Antennal insertions widely separated (by the width of a compound eye)
A brush of hairs from antennal base projecting over compound eye
Hindtibia (usually) with 2 pairs of spurs (only apical pair present in other Papilionoidea)

Big-headed with large compound eyes and broad-bodied with wings small in proportion to body
Rest with wings angled so that forewing and hindwing are in different planes (subfamily: Hesperiinae) or spread (subfamily: Pyrginae)
Mostly drab in colour. Males may have a forewing sex brand; All forewing veins run unbranched from cell to wing margin

Subfamily: Pyrginae (2G 2S)

Erynnis

001 Erynnis tages
(Dingy Skipper)