The

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 ...

subtribe Euptychiina (

Lepidoptera Lepidoptera ( ) or lepidopterans is an order (biology), order of winged insects which includes butterflies and moths. About 180,000 species of the Lepidoptera have been described, representing 10% of the total described species of living organ ...

Nymphalidae The Nymphalidae are the largest family of butterflies, with more than 6,000 species distributed throughout most of the world. Belonging to the superfamily Papilionoidea, they are usually medium-sized to large butterflies. Most species ha ...

) is a diverse group within the

tribe The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide use of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. The definition is contested, in part due to conflict ...

Satyrini The Satyrini is one of the tribe (biology), tribes of the subfamily Satyrinae. It includes about 2200 species and is therefore the largest tribe in the subfamily which comprises 2500 species. Distribution Satyrini butterflies have a Cosmopolit ...

, occurring throughout Central and South America, in addition to a few species known from North America. Euptychiina is a predominantly lowland group, with the exception of one Asian taxon ''

Palaeonympha opalina ''Palaeonympha'' is a monotypic butterfly genus of the subfamily Satyrinae in the family Nymphalidae. Its one species, ''Palaeonympha opalina'', is found in Taiwan

'' Butler, 1871 and the

Andean The Andes ( ), Andes Mountains or Andean Mountain Range (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long and wide (widest between 18°S ...

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

Forsterinaria ''Forsterinaria'' is a genus of satyrid butterflies found in the Neotropical realm. Species Listed alphabetically:

Euptychiina

Despite its members being common, this subtribe has been a challenging subject for taxonomic and phylogenetic studies for many years because of their dull coloration, intraspecific variation, lack of clear morphological characters, and morphological homogeneity. However, with the exception of pioneering work by W. Forster and L. D. Miller, the group received little attention from butterfly researchers until recently due to their typically dull brownish coloration. Currently, 50 genera and over 400 described species are recognized within this subtribe, but the group is estimated to contain over 500 species in 70 genera. The current classification of Euptychiina is based on the Lamas checklist, who retained and reorganized many of the genera erected by Forster. Forster described 33 euptychiine genera that are now widely accepted, but since he erected these genera without testing

monophyly In biological cladistics for the classification of organisms, monophyly is the condition of a taxonomic grouping being a clade – that is, a grouping of organisms which meets these criteria: # the grouping contains its own most recent comm ...

and

synapomorphies In phylogenetics, an apomorphy (or derived trait) is a novel character or character state that has evolved from its ancestral form (or plesiomorphy). A synapomorphy is an apomorphy shared by two or more taxa and is therefore hypothesized to ...

, many of his genera have been recovered as

polyphyletic A polyphyletic group is an assemblage that includes organisms with mixed evolutionary origin but does not include their most recent common ancestor. The term is often applied to groups that share similar features known as Homoplasy, homoplasies ...

paraphyletic Paraphyly is a taxonomic term describing a grouping that consists of the grouping's last common ancestor and some but not all of its descendant lineages. The grouping is said to be paraphyletic ''with respect to'' the excluded subgroups. In co ...

in recent molecular phylogenetic studies. Euptychiine phylogeny

History of classification

A. Butler was probably the first to propose a systematic classification for many euptychiine taxa, excluding species now in the "''

Taygetis ''Taygetis'' is a genus of Satyrinae, satyrid butterflies found in the Neotropical realm. Taxonomy and evolution The genus appeared as polyphyletic,, 2013: Systematics and evolutionary history of butterflies in the “''Taygetis'' clade” (Nymp ...

clade In biology, a clade (), also known as a Monophyly, monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach t ...

". In his monograph of ''

Euptychia ''Euptychia'' is a genus of satyrid butterflies found in the Neotropical realm. The genus was erected by Jacob Hübner Jacob Hübner (20 June 1761 – 13 September 1826, in Augsburg) was a German entomologist. He was the author of ''Sammlung E ...

'' (then used as a catch-all genus to include most euptychiine species), Butler divided the genus into seven groups (Division I to VII). Subsequently, Butler proposed an updated classification for the group and recognized 27 "species groups" within ''Euptychia sensu'' Butler (1867). G. Weymer recognized 29 "species group" within ''Euptychia sensu'' Butler, in addition to treating ''

'' and ''

Amphidecta ''Amphidecta'' is a genus of satyrid butterfly found in the Neotropical realm The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropics, tropical Ecoregion#Terrestr ...

'' in his monograph of Satyridae in the "Macrolepidoptera of the American Faunistic region" by A. Seitz. Based on Weymer (1911)'s classification, Forster (1964) introduced 33 euptychiine genera and his classification is largely retained in Lamas (2004), a work considered as a vital foundation regarding Neotropical butterfly classification. The recent years have seen an explosion of interest in euptychiine systematics, resulting in many changes in generic classification of the group as well as improvement in our understanding of its species diversity. Although the subtribal name was first introduced by L. D. Miller when he treated Euptychiina as a tribal level taxon "Euptychiini", the genus ''Euptychia'' Hübner, 1818 was historically used to place many euptychiine species now no longer classified in that genus, perhaps explaining why the generic name ''Euptychia'' was used in a much broader sense to include many other euptychiine species. Consequently, Forster included this name "''Euptychia''" as part of new generic names he described, a trend also followed when the new generic name '' Atlanteuptychia'' was introduced for ''

Euptychia ernestina ''Euptychia'' is a genus of satyrid butterflies found in the Neotropical realm. The genus was erected by Jacob Hübner Jacob Hübner (20 June 1761 – 13 September 1826, in Augsburg) was a German entomologist. He was the author of ''Sammlung E ...

'' Weymer, 1911. However, other recently described euptychiine genera do not follow this trend (references above).

Biology

There exist detailed early stage biology (i.e. complete life cycle documented) information for 30 euptychiine species.See, J., Nakahara, S., Gallice, G. 2018 Immature stages of ''Splendeuptychia quadrina'' (Butler, 1869) (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae: Satyrinae)''. Tropical Lepidoptera Research'', 28 (2): 49–53. Larva of euptychiine species often lack body scoli and possessing short head scoli and caudal filaments, but there exist some variation. Hostplant records are known for approximately 100 species, those records are mainly

grass Poaceae ( ), also called Gramineae ( ), is a large and nearly ubiquitous family (biology), family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos, the grasses of natural grassland and spe ...

and

bamboo Bamboos are a diverse group of mostly evergreen perennial plant, perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily (biology), subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family, in th ...

species, although the genus ''Euptychia'' is known to feed on

moss Mosses are small, non-vascular plant, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic phylum, division Bryophyta (, ) ''sensu stricto''. Bryophyta (''sensu lato'', Wilhelm Philippe Schimper, Schimp. 1879) may also refer to the parent group bryo ...

es and lycopsids.Brévignon, C. 2008. Inventaire des Satyrinae de Guyane Française (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae), pp. 62-94. In: Lacomme, D., Manil, L. (Eds.),''Lépidoptères de Guyane, Tome 3, Rhopalocères 2.'' Paris, Lepidopteristes de France.

Generic classification and species

The following genera and species belong to subtribe Euptychina.

References

{{Taxonbar , from=Q3060492 Lepidoptera subtribes