Topic summary
Hesperiidae
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Skipper (butterfly).
Description and systematics
Traditionally, the Hesperiidae were placed in a monotypicsuperfamily Hesperioidea, because they are morphologically distinct from other Rhopalocera (butterflies), which mostly belong to the typical butterfly superfamily Papilionoidea. The third and rather small butterfly superfamily was the moth-butterflies (Hedyloidea), which are restricted to the Neotropics, but recent phylogenetic analyses suggest the traditional Papilionoidea are paraphyletic, thus recent classifications treat Hesperiidae and Hedylidae as families within an expanded Papilionoidea to reflect true cladistic relationships.