Telegonus fulgerator
species of insects
Telegonus fulgerator, the two-barred flasher, is a species of spread-wing skipper butterfly in the family Hesperiidae which may constitute a possible cryptic species complex. It ranges all over the Americas, from the southern United States to northern Argentina.
Description
Telegonus fulgerator is a mid-sized skipper butterfly with the wing shape typical 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.
Larval food plants
This species is highly polyphagous, with most food plants belonging to the Fabaceae (legume family):
Selected primary food plants
Fabaceae
Inga: I. exalata, I. oerstediana, I. punctata, I. sapindoides, I. vera and probably others
Lonchocarpus (see also below)
Senna: candle bush (S. alata), S. cobanensis, S. hayesiana, S. pallida, S. papillosa, S. undulata and probably others
Malvaceae
Hampea appendiculata (but see below)
Sapindaceae
Cupania: C. glabra, C. guatemalensis and probably others
Selected secondary and accidental food plants
Capparaceae
Capparis frondosa
Fabaceae
Canavalia brasiliensis
Cassia: golden shower tree (C. fistula), C. grandis and possibly others
Centrosema (butterfly peas): C. macrocarpum, C. plumieri and possibly others
Desmodium glabrum
Dioclea: D. malacocarpa, D. violacea and possibly others
Mucuna holtonii
Piscidia carthagenensis
Malvaceae
Byttneria catalpaefolia
Rhamnaceae
Karwinskia calderoni
Salicaceae
Casearia sylvestris
Styracaceae
Styrax argenteus
Systematics
Due to the diversity of caterpillar colors and food plants it was suspected that the butterflies referred to as Telegonus fulgerator might be more than a single species. A controversial 2004 DNA barcoding study of a 648 base pair sequence from the Cytochrome c oxidase (COI) DNA sequence by Paul D. N. Hébert et al.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Telegonus fulgerator” is species of insects. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Telegonus, fulgerator and species, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “species of insects” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The date and method of observation matter as much as the stated conclusion, especially where classification or consensus has changed. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q97672923. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2004.
Scientific names, classifications and consensus can change while older terminology persists in catalogues and historical literature. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Telegonus fulgerator” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.