Thorybes diversus | |
---|---|
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Arthropoda |
Class: | Insecta |
Order: | Lepidoptera |
Family: | Hesperiidae |
Genus: | Thorybes |
Species: | T. diversus |
Binomial name | |
Thorybes diversus Bell, 1927 | |
Thorybes diversus, the western cloudywing, is a butterfly of the Hesperiidae (skipper) family. It is found in the western North America. The range extends along western slopes of the Sierra Nevada and Cascade Mountain ranges, from southern Oregon to Mariposa County. [1] The habitat consists of small openings in coniferous forests.
Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The group comprises the large superfamily Papilionoidea, which contains at least one former group, the skippers and the most recent analyses suggest it also contains the moth-butterflies. Butterfly fossils date to the Paleocene, which was about 56 million years ago.
The Sierra Nevada is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primarily in Nevada. The Sierra Nevada is part of the American Cordillera, a chain of mountain ranges that consists of an almost continuous sequence of such ranges that form the western "backbone" of North America, Central America, South America and Antarctica.
Cascade Mountain is a mountain located in the Bow River Valley of Banff National Park, adjacent to the town of Banff. The mountain was named in 1858 by James Hector after the waterfall or cascade on the southern flanks of the peak. The mountain has also been called Stoney Chief, which is related to the name of the smaller neighbouring mountain Stoney Squaw, which is still in use. Cascade is the highest mountain adjacent to the townsite.
The adults are primarily a dull brown. The upper aspects of the wings have small pale spots, while the undersides show gray scaling at the margins. The males lack the fold on the forewings leading edge, known as a costal fold, which in other species of butterflies contains scent scales (androconia). [2] Hindwings may show darker banding. The wingspan is 32–38 mm. The wings are dull brown with small pale spots. Adults are on wing from June to July in one generation per year.
The wingspan of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777-200 has a wingspan of 60.93 metres, and a wandering albatross caught in 1965 had a wingspan of 3.63 metres, the official record for a living bird. The term wingspan, more technically extent, is also used for other winged animals such as pterosaurs, bats, insects, etc., and other fixed-wing aircraft such as ornithopters. In humans, the term wingspan also refers to the arm span, which is distance between the length from one end of an individual's arms to the other when raised parallel to the ground at shoulder height at a 90º angle. Former professional basketball player Manute Bol stands at 7 ft 7 in (2.31 m) and owns one of the largest wingspans at 8 ft 6 in (2.59 m).
The larvae (caterpillars) feed on Trifolium wormskioldii , a species of clover native to the western half of North America. [3]
Caterpillars are the larval stage of members of the order Lepidoptera.
Trifolium wormskioldii is a species of clover. Its common names include cows clover, coast clover, sand clover, seaside clover, springbank clover, and Wormskjold's clover.
Clover or trefoil are common names for plants of the genus Trifolium, consisting of about 300 species of flowering plants in the legume or pea family Fabaceae. The genus has a cosmopolitan distribution with highest diversity in the temperate Northern Hemisphere, but many species also occur in South America and Africa, including at high altitudes on mountains in the tropics. They are small annual, biennial, or short-lived perennial herbaceous plants. Clover can be evergreen. The leaves are trifoliate, cinquefoil, or septfoil), with stipules adnate to the leaf-stalk, and heads or dense spikes of small red, purple, white, or yellow flowers; the small, few-seeded pods are enclosed in the calyx. Other closely related genera often called clovers include Melilotus and Medicago.
The gatekeeper or hedge brown is most commonly found in southern and eastern Britain and coastal areas of south and south-east Ireland. It is also found in the Channel Islands, but not in Scotland nor the Isle of Man. Given its preference for warmer weather, the restriction of range expansion can be assumed to be due to climate. Colonies vary in size depending on the available habitat, and can range from a few dozen to several thousand butterflies.
The green hairstreak is a small butterfly in the family Lycaenidae.
Aricia agestis, the brown argus, is a butterfly in the family Lycaenidae. It is found throughout the Palearctic ecozone north to northern Jutland (Denmark) and east to Siberia and Tian Shan.
The shark is a moth of the family Noctuidae.
Halpe homolea, the Indian ace or Ceylon ace, is a butterfly belonging to the family Hesperiidae.
The New Zealand red admiral is a butterfly endemic to New Zealand. Its Māori name is kahukura, which means "red cloak". The red admiral is a member of the family Nymphalidae, the subfamily Nymphalinae and the tribe Nymphalini. There are two subspecies: V. g. gonerilla, which occurs on the mainland of New Zealand, and V. g. ida, which occurs on the Chatham Islands.
Lampides boeticus, the pea blue, or long-tailed blue, is a small butterfly that belongs to the lycaenids or gossamer-winged family.
Adelpha californica, the California sister, is a species of butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. They are common in California, but can also be found in western Nevada and Oregon, as well as in northern Baja California. The upper surfaces of their wings are dark brown to black with wide cream white bands dissecting both wings and two orange patches near the tips of the forewings. The underside is variously colored with browns, blue, orange, and white. A. californica is unpalatable to predators and is part of a large mimicry complex.
The western pygmy blue is one of the smallest butterflies in the world and the smallest in North America. It has reached Hawaii, as well as the Persian Gulf, including eastern Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. The upperside is copper brown with dull blue at the bases of both wings. The underside of the hindwing is copper brown with white at the base; the fringe mostly white, with 3 small black spots near base, and a row of black spots at outer margin. The wingspan is 12 - 20 mm. Life History: Males patrol over the host plants all day to find receptive females. Females lay eggs all over the host but particularly on the uppersides of leaves. Caterpillars eat all parts of the plant. Chrysalids hibernate. Flight: July-September in the north, all year in South Texas. Caterpillar Hosts: Pigweed, saltbush species (Atriplex), and others in the goosefoot family (Chenopodiaceae). Adult Food: Flower nectar. Habitat: Alkaline areas such as deserts, salt marshes, and wasteland. Range: Common. Central California east to southern Nevada, central Arizona, central New Mexico, and west Texas. South through southern California, Baja California, and Mexico to Venezuela. Migrates to Arkansas, Nebraska, and Oregon. United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, eastern Saudi Arabia along the Persian Gulf coast up to Kuwait.
The tambourine dove is a pigeon which is a widespread resident breeding bird in woodlands and other thick vegetation in Africa south of the Sahara Desert. Its range extends from Senegal east to Ethiopia and Kenya and southwards through eastern Africa to south-eastern South Africa, but it is absent from the drier areas of south-western Africa. There is a population on the Comoros Islands.
The Oregon swallowtail is a subspecies of swallowtail butterfly native to the United States of America, Oregon, Washington, and Idaho and south-central British Columbia in Canada. In 1976, it became one of the first four butterflies that the United States Postal Service placed on a U.S. stamp.
Thorybes pylades, the northern cloudywing, is a butterfly species of the family Hesperiidae.
The Dull Firetip is a North American butterfly in the family Hesperiidae. It is the only butterfly in the subfamily Pyrrhopyginae that occurs in the United States. They usually perch with their wings fully or partly open. Adults are very fond of flowers. Their flight is direct and quite fast, usually flying high above trees.
Thorybes bathyllus, the southern cloudywing, is a North American butterfly in the family Hesperiidae. Southern cloudywings can be difficult to identify because of individual variation and confusing seasonal forms. In the south, where it has two broods per year, two seasonal forms occur. Spring forms are usually lightly marked and resemble confused cloudywings. Summer forms tend to be more boldly marked, by comparison, making identification easier. However, summer confused cloudywings are also strongly patterned, which makes identifying them more difficult. Their rapid flight is very erratic, though it is closer to the ground than in some of its close relatives.
Thorybes mexicana, the Mexican cloudywing, mountain cloudy wing or Nevada cloudy wing, is a butterfly of the family Hesperiidae. It is found in the high elevation mountains of the western United States south into Mexico.
Lycaena rubidus, the ruddy copper, is a butterfly of the family Lycaenidae. It is found in the western mountains of North America. Adults lay their eggs on plants of the genus Rumex, which later become the larval food plants. This butterfly gets its name from the brightly colored wings of the males, which are important in sexual selection. Its larvae exhibit mutualism with red ants, and are often raised in ant nests until they reach adulthood. Adults are on wing from mid-July to early August.
Marpesia zerynthia, the waiter daggerwing, is a species of butterfly in the family Nymphalidae that occurs in, and somewhat north and south of Mesoamerica.
Euphyes berryi, known as Berry's skipper, is a rare species of butterfly of the family Hesperiidae, historically found in wet areas from North Carolina to Florida.
Blepharomastix ranalis, the hollow-spotted blepharomastix moth, is a species of grass moth of the Crambidae family found in the eastern and southern United States and Mexico.
![]() | This Hesperiidae-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |