''Elkalyce'' is a genus of

butterflies 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 ...

in the family

Lycaenidae Lycaenidae is the second-largest family (biology), family of butterflies (behind Nymphalidae, brush-footed butterflies), with over 6,000 species worldwide, whose members are also called gossamer-winged butterflies. They constitute about 30% of ...

.The genus is

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unisp ...

containing the single species '' Elkalyce cogina'' (Schaus, 1902)

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

. '' Elkalyce cogina'', the only species in the genus, does not belong to the sub-tribe Lycaenopsina and actually belongs to the sub-tribe Everina (Freitas et al., 2016). The species '' Elkalyce cogina'' originates in Asia (Freitas et al., 2016). The larvae of '' Elkalyce cogina'' feeds on fabaceae (Freitas et al., 2016).

References

Freitas, A. V. L., Kaminski, L. A., Talavera, G., & Vila, R. (2016). One‐note samba: the biogeographical history of the relict Brazilian butterfly Elkalyce cogina. ''Journal of Biogeography'', 43(4), 727–737. https://doi.org/10.1111/jbi.12671 Lycaenidae genera {{Polyommatini-stub