Two-banded checkered skipper
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Hesperiidae
Genus: Pyrgus
Species:
P. ruralis
Binomial name
Pyrgus ruralis
(Boisduval, 1852)
Synonyms
  • Pyrgus caespitalis (Boisduval, 1852)
  • Pyrgus ricara (Edwards, 1865)
  • Pyrgus petreius (Edwards, 1870)
  • Hesperia caespitalis Dyar, 1903

Pyrgus ruralis, the two-banded checkered skipper, is a species of skipper butterfly (family Hesperiidae). It is found from southern British Columbia and the Rocky Mountains of SW Alberta, with populations south to central California, Nevada, Utah, and Colorado, and one population of an endangered subspecies in southern California, in the mountains east of San Diego. That endangered subspecies is ssp. lagunae, known by the common name Laguna Mountains skipper.

The wingspan is 25–29 mm. There is one generation from April to July.

The larvae feed on herbaceous plants in the rose family Rosaceae, including Potentilla drummondii, Horkelia fusca, Horkelia tenuiloba and Horkelia bolanderi clevelandii. Adults feed on flower nectar.

Subspecies


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