SUPERFAMILY Hesperioidea
The true butterflies are so distinct in their structure and many of their habits from the Skippers that the most careful students of the order are pretty well agreed in making the two great superfamilies—Papilionoidea, the true butterflies, and Hesperioidea, the Skipper butterflies. The latter includes these two families:
The Giant Skippers (Megathymidae).
The Common Skippers (Hesperiidae).
These insects as a whole are distinguished from the higher butterflies by their large moth-like bodies, small wings, hooked antennae (except in the Giant Skippers), by having five branches of the radius vein arising from the large central cell. The larvae spin slight cocoons in which to pupate and the pupae are rounded rather than angular.
The two families are readily distinguished by the differences in their size and the structure of the antennae. The Giant Skippers measure two inches or more across the expanded wings and have comparatively small heads, with the clubs of the antennae not pointed or recurved. The Common Skippers are smaller, and have very large heads with the antennal clubs drawn out and recurved.
Family Megathymidae
Although large in size, the Giant Skippers are few in numbers. Only one genus and five species are listed for North America, and practically all of these are confined to the Southwestern states and Mexico. Some of them extend as far north as Colorado and as far east as Florida.