Spread-wing
Guides
Pyrginae
Spread-wing Skippers, Spread-winged Skippers
Pyrginae is a subfamily of skipper butterflies (family Hesperiidae) distinguished by their characteristic spread-wing resting posture, in contrast to the folded-wing posture of Hesperiinae. Members are commonly known as spread-wing skippers. The subfamily was established by Hermann Burmeister in 1878 and has undergone considerable taxonomic revision, with evolutionary relationships of many genera largely resolved by 2009. Pyrginae is one of two or three skipper subfamilies found in California, alongside Hesperiinae and Heteropterinae.