Firetips or firetail skippers are skipper butterflies in the subfamily Pyrrhopyginae (

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

Hesperiidae). The roughly 150

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

are found only in the

Neotropics The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropical terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperate zone. Definition In bioge ...

, 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 The abdomen (colloquially called the belly, tummy, midriff, tucky or stomach) is the part of the body between the thorax (chest) and pelvis, in humans and in other vertebrates. The abdomen is the front part of the abdominal segment of the to ...

of many Pyrrhopyginae.Brower (2007)

Tribes

Pyrrhopyginae contains the following tribes: * Azonaxini * Oxynetrini * Passovini * Pyrrhopygini * Zoniini

Footnotes

References

{{Pyrginae-stub Butterfly subfamilies