Heteropterus morpheus
(Pallas, 1771) · speciesAt a glance
Sources8 archives
Databases and archives Heteropterus morpheus's data was compiled from.
WikipediaWikimedia Foundation8 languages↗
BioWikiNetmultilingual Wikipediamultilingual↗
GBIFGlobal Biodiversity Information Facility29 354 records↗
ENAEuropean Nucleotide Archive · EMBL-EBI59 eDNA detections↗
BOLD SystemsCentre for Biodiversity Genomics72 specimens↗
Open Tree of LifeOpenTreephylogeny backbone↗
WikidataWikimedia Foundationstructured facts↗
GLoBIGlobal Biotic Interactionsbiotic interactions↗Every layer below draws on the sources above — open one to explore it, or use ← → to move between tabs.
The large chequered skipper (Heteropterus morpheus) is a butterfly of the family Hesperiidae. It is the single member of the monotypic genus Heteropterus. The species can be found in isolated populations in Europe and east across the Palearctic to Central Asia and Korea. It is endangered in the Netherlands. Specimen in southern France The length of the forewings is 15–18 mm. The butterfly is on the wing from June to August, depending on the location. The larvae feed on Eriophorum, Poa annua, Calamagrostis canescens, Brachypodium and Molinia species (including Molinia coerulea). As can be seen, the butterfly has a very distinctive and attractive underside but a drab upperside (which is rarely seen, as it usually settles with wings closed). This butterfly is very similar to the Chequered skipper, but they have their own attributes that allow them to be distinguished. The flight is just as distinctive and indeed provides immediate identification of the species: it appears to bounce through the air with little sense of direction, almost as if drunk. In France, it has been seen in the south west including, in 2011, the Hautes-Pyrénées department.
No narrative description available for this taxon yet.
No structured trait data for this taxon yet.
A DNA barcode is a short, standardised stretch of genes that works like a fingerprint — enough to tell one species from another. Below is the molecular trace Heteropterus morpheus has left across the world's sequence archives.
At a glance
★ the standard DNA barcode for this group — the short region actually read to tell this species apart. The rest are extra genes sequenced along the way.
Besides the big genome in the nucleus, cells carry a small, circular loop of DNA inside the cell's energy factories — the mitochondria. It is inherited almost only from the mother and is a leftover from ancient bacteria that moved into the cell. The mitochondrial markers above (ND*, COX, CYTB…) are read from exactly this loop. Outer ring = one strand, inner ring = the other.
How far back this lineage goes — and how we know. Everything here is measured in Ma, short for “mega-annum”: millions of years ago. The chart reads left to right like a calendar of the Earth, from the deep past on the left to today at the right edgetop to bottom like a core drilled through the Earth, from the deep past at the top down to today at the bottom.
At a glance
When this lineage existed
How to read this: the coloured strip along the bottomdown the left is the geological calendar — the standard epochs (Pliocene, Pleistocene…) every museum uses, shown so you can see which chapter of Earth's history this lineage lived in. This lineage is a young one, so the strip is zoomed in to epochs — the finer subdivisions inside a period. The orange marker is the DNA clock: DNA accumulates mutations at a roughly steady rate, so comparing this species' DNA with its relatives estimates when the lineage split off — independently of any fossil.
Record type29 354 records
Origin
Range
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
Museum / Voucheredphysical evidence
Backed by a physical specimen — a herbarium sheet, sample or voucher held in a collection. “Vouchered” means supported by material evidence, not just an observation.
Cultivated / Captivenot free-living
A living individual in a botanical garden, zoo or nursery — cultivated or kept, not free-living.
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
Holding institutions23 of 49 geolocated
Institutions and collections holding physical, vouchered specimens of this species — click a row to fly to it on the map.
| Institution | Specimens |
|---|---|
| DanishLepidopterologicalSocietylocation not on record | 447 |
| Natural History Museum Rotterdamlocation not on record | 121 |
| Tartu, EE | 87 |
| Provincia di Livornolocation not on record | 85 |
| Zürich, CH | 71 |
| UMUlocation not on record | 70 |
| Helsinki, FI | 63 |
| Laboratorium voor Microbiologie der Landbouwhogeschoollocation not on record | 33 |
| Philadelphia, US | 28 |
| Bern, CH | 26 |
| Tallinn, EE | 25 |
| Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznańlocation not on record | 25 |
| Cambridge, US | 23 |
| Muzeum Górnośląskie w Bytomiulocation not on record | 22 |
| Salzburg, AT | 22 |
| Dhaka, BD | 22 |
| Nijmegen, NL | 20 |
| NMOKlocation not on record | 18 |
| Musee d'Histoire Naturallelocation not on record | 16 |
| Frauenfeld, CH | 12 |
| Edmonton, CA | 10 |
| Uniwersytet Łódzkilocation not on record | 9 |
| Museo civico di Storia naturale Giacomo Doria di Genova | Giacomo Doria Natural History Museum in Genoalocation not on record | 8 |
| Museum Ludovicae Ulricae, Zoology Institute of the University of Uppsalalocation not on record | 8 |
| Geneva, CH | 8 |
| Glarus, CH | 6 |
| Podgorica, ME | 5 |
| OSUClocation not on record | 5 |
| Brussels, BE | 5 |
| Brussel, BE | 5 |
| Denver, US | 4 |
| MJINlocation not on record | 4 |
| MJIMlocation not on record | 4 |
| Jyväskylä, FI | 3 |
| Radicondoli, IT | 3 |
| Uniwersytet Marii Curie-Skłodowskiejlocation not on record | 3 |
| ZMAAlocation not on record | 3 |
| RBINS-Scientific Heritagelocation not on record | 3 |
| Toronto, CA | 2 |
| Casa delle Farfalle di Bordano | Bordano Butterfly Houselocation not on record | 2 |
| Naturéum — Muséum cantonal des sciences naturelles, Lausanne, Département Zoologielocation not on record | 2 |
| Natural History Museum of Utahlocation not on record | 2 |
| KSSlocation not on record | 2 |
| Winterthur, CH | 2 |
| Research Collection of Hartmut Wegnerlocation not on record | 1 |
| John May Museum of Natural Historylocation not on record | 1 |
| Natural History Museum of Neuchatellocation not on record | 1 |
| New Haven, US | 1 |
| Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeumlocation not on record | 1 |
Cultivated / Captivenot free-living
A living individual in a botanical garden, zoo or nursery — cultivated or kept, not free-living.
Where the DNA of Heteropterus morpheus was picked up in samples of water, soil or air — nobody saw the organism, only its DNA left behind. A trace is a clue that the species was near, not a confirmed sighting.
Signal
Where its DNA was found
How strong is each trace?
Modelled climatemodelled
How to read this: each dot is one detection of this species' DNA in an environmental sample. The confidence meter weighs how many independent studies and places back up the signal — one detection in one study is a hint; many across several studies is solid. Records dated before 2008 (when eDNA methods began) are treated as likely mislabeled and left off the map.