Astraptes fulgerator
| Two-barred flasher | |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Lepidoptera |
| Family: | Hesperiidae |
| Genus: | Astraptes |
| Species: | A. fulgerator |
| Binomial name | |
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Astraptes fulgerator Walch, 1775 |
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Astraptes fulgerator, the two-barred flasher, is a cryptic species complex in the spread-wing skipper butterfly genus Astraptes. It ranges all over the Americas, from the southern United States to northern Argentina.
A. fulgerator's adults all look quite alike. They are mid-sized skipper butterflies with the typical wing shape of this group. The upperside is black, with basal to postbasal blue corners which are more extensive on the forewings. There is one discal-tomal and one apical band on the forewing; these are usually off white to light blue but the former may be quite white towards the costal margin. The thorax has bluish hair on the back, the underside is yellow to orange.
The caterpillars and pupae show a wide range of colors and patterns, and the caterpillars also vary in food preference. Last-instar caterpillars are black with a pattern consisting of light to bright yellow dots along the sides, or rings of varying thickness, sometimes interrupted on the back, in a range of colors varying from white to orange red.
This species is highly polyphagous, with most food plants belonging to the Fabaceae (legume family):
Selected primary food plants
Selected secondary and accidental food plants
Due to the diversity of caterpillar colors and food plants it was long suspected that the butterflies referred to as Astraptes fulgerator might be more than a single species. DNA sequence data indicates that a number of populations are in various stages of reproductive isolation, and the taxonomy of these butterflies will probably be revised accordingly. Initial results seem to confirm that in one study area, at least three species or previously unrecognized subspecies are involved. Given the species complex' large range, considerable more emergent species and subspecies seem to await discovery.
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