''Thorybes diversus'', the western cloudywing, is a

butterfly Butterflies are winged insects from the lepidopteran superfamily Papilionoidea, characterized by large, often brightly coloured wings that often fold together when at rest, and a conspicuous, fluttering flight. The oldest butterfly fossi ...

of the

Hesperiidae Skippers are a group of butterflies placed in the family Hesperiidae within the order Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies). They were previously placed in a separate superfamily, Hesperioidea, but have since been placed in the superfamily Papilion ...

(skipper) family. It is found in the western North America. The range extends along western slopes of the

Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada ( ) is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primari ...

and

Cascade Cascade, or Cascading may refer to: Science and technology Science * Air shower (physics), a cascade (particle shower) of subatomic particles and ionized nuclei ** Particle shower, a cascade of secondary particles produced as the result of a high ...

ranges, from southern

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

to Mariposa County. The habitat consists of small openings in coniferous forests.

Morphology

The adults are primarily a dull brown. The upper aspects of the wings have small pale spots, while the undersides show gray scaling at the margins. The males lack the fold on the forewings leading edge, known as a costal fold, which in other species of butterflies contains scent scales ( androconia). Hindwings may show darker banding. The

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the opposite wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingsp ...

is 32–38 mm. The wings are dull brown with small pale spots. Adults are on wing from June to July in one generation per year. Trifoliumwormskioldii

The larvae (

caterpillar Caterpillars ( ) are the larval stage of members of the order Lepidoptera (the insect order comprising butterflies and moths). As with most common names, the application of the word is arbitrary, since the larvae of sawflies (suborder ...

s) feed on ''

Trifolium wormskioldii ''Trifolium wormskioldii'' is a species of clover''Trifoli ...

'', a species of

clover Clovers, also called trefoils, are plants of the genus ''Trifolium'' (), consisting of about 300 species of flowering plants in the legume family Fabaceae originating in Europe. The genus has a cosmopolitan distribution with the highest diversit ...

native to the western half of North America.

References

Hesperiidae Butterflies of North America Butterflies described in 1927 Thorybes {{Hesperiidae-stub