Hesperia (butterfly)

Hesperia, the branded skippers, is a Holarctic genus in the skippers (Hesperiidae) butterfly family. Most species are endemic to North America, Hesperia comma is widespread throughout the region. H. florinda is endemic to temperate eastern Asia. H. nabokovi is endemic to Hispaniola.

Hesperia
Hesperia comma
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Hesperiidae
Tribe:	Hesperiini
Genus:	Hesperia Fabricius, 1793
Species
About 20 - see text
Synonyms
Pamphila Fabricius, 1807 Diorthosus Rafinesque, 1815 Steropes Rafinesque, 1815 Phidias Rafinesque, 1815 Symmachia Sodoffsky, 1837 Ocytes Scudder, 1872 Anthomaster Scudder, 1872 Urbicola Tutt, 1905 Pamphilus Ihering, 1908

Hesperia comma female

Hesperia comma female

Presumably, Johan Christian Fabricius named the genus for Hesperia, one of the Hesperides.

Species

The following species are recognised in the genus Hesperia:^[1]

• Hesperia assiniboia (Lyman, 1892) – Plains skipper
• Hesperia attalus (W. H. Edwards, 1871) – dotted skipper – south United States
• Hesperia caucasica Riabov, 1926 Caucasus
• Hesperia colorado (Scudder, 1874) – western branded skipper
• Hesperia columbia (Scudder, 1872) – Columbian skipper – California to Southwest Oregon
• Hesperia comma (Linnaeus, 1758) – silver-spotted skipper or common branded skipper
• Hesperia dacotae (Skinner, 1911) – Dakota skipper
• Hesperia florinda (Butler, 1878)
• Hesperia juba (Scudder, 1872) – Juba skipper
• Hesperia leonardus (Harris, 1862) – Leonard's skipper
• Hesperia lindseyi (Holland, 1930) – Lindsey's skipper – Southwest Oregon, California, Southwest Arizona
• Hesperia meskei W. H. Edwards, 1877 – Meke's skipper, Dixie skipper – Texas to Florida
• Hesperia metea Scudder, 1863 – cobweb skipper
• Hesperia miriamae MacNeill, 1959 – Sierra skipper – Inyo County, California
• Hesperia nabokovi (Bell & Comstock, 1948) Hispaniola
• Hesperia nevada (Scudder, 1874) – Nevada skipper
• Hesperia ottoe W. H. Edwards, 1866 – Ottoe skipper
• Hesperia pahaska Luessler, 1938 – Pahaska skipper
• Hesperia sassacus Harris, 1862 – Indian skipper
• Hesperia uncas W. H. Edwards, 1863 – Uncas skipper
• Hesperia viridis (W. H. Edwards, 1883) – green skipper – Mexico, New Mexico
• Hesperia woodgatei (R. C. Williams, 1914) – Apache skipper – Arizona, New Mexico, South Texas, North Mexico

Former species

Many species originally described in the genus Hesperia have now been reclassified. For a list of selected former species see List of former species in the genus Hesperia.