Satyrus.net

a site of resources on Satyrinae butterflies

 
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Resources on Satyrinae butterflies

Welcome to the pages on Satyrinae genera

This is a pictorial guide to species of Satyrinae butterflies. You will find butterfly pictures, notes on classification and taxonomy and links to relevant bibliographic references. Note that the taxonomy of the group is a mess and its classification is in constant change. Although this situation has improved greatly thanks to the Catalog of names for Neotropical butterflies by Lamas et al. (2004). The only comprehensive phylogenetic study of the group, using molecular data, of Peña et al. (2006) shows that the relationships among tribes and subtribes are in need of a major revision.
 
Subfamily Satyrinae:
The Satyrinae is the biggest subfamily in the Nymphalidae. It includes around 2600 species of worldwide distribution.

The Satyrinae is a very successful group of butterflies, they inhabit all continents, remote islands, tropical forests, cold places in high latitudes and even live in high elevation habitats in mountain chains. Most of Satyrinae feed on monocotyledoneous plants, mainly from the family of grasses, Poaceae, although interesting enough, some species in the genus Euptychia depart from this rule by feeding on lower plants like Selaginella (fam. Selaginellaceae), even some Euptychia species go as far as feeding on mosses (division Bryophyta) as larvae. No other group of butterfly has ever been found to feed on such lower plants.

Classification:
The current classification of Satyrinae follows mainly Miller's 1968 publication. Although Lamas et al.'s 2004 Catalog of names only treated Neotropical butterflies, it has provided some sort of order but much work is still needed.
The bulk of species of Satyrinae are included in two subtribes, Euptychiina and Pronophilina, which are distributed only in the new world, presenting a highest diversity in the Neotropics, particularly South America.

References:

  • Lamas, G. (Ed.) (2004) Checklist: Part 4A. Hesperioidea-Papilionoidea. Atlas of Neotropical Lepidoptera. Association for Tropical Lepidoptera/Scientific Publishers. Link
  • Miller, Lee D. (1968) The higher classification, phylogeny and zoogeography of the Satyridae (Lepidoptera). Memoirs of the American Entomological Society 24: 1–174. Link
  • Peña, C., Wahlberg, N., Weingartner, E., Kodandaramaiah, U., Nylin, S., Freitas, A. and A.V.Z. Brower (2006) Higher level phylogeny of Satyrinae butterflies (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) based on DNA sequence data. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 40: 29–49. Link
Last Updated ( Tuesday, 11 November 2008 04:55 )
 

Amphidecta

Amphidecta calliomma (F. & F., 1862)
amphidecta_calliomma_uamphidecta_calliomma_b

Amphidecta pignerator Butler, 1867
amphidecta_pignerator_uamphidecta_pignerator_b

 Murray, D.L. 2000. A survey of the butterfly fauna of Jatun Sacha, Ecuador (Lepidoptera: Hesperioidea and Papilionoidea). Journal of the Research on the Lepidoptera 35: 42-60.  Original description

Last Updated ( Sunday, 27 July 2008 19:09 )
 

Euptychia

Euptychia enyo Butler, 1867
Euptychia enyo
 
Euptychia ordinata (Weymer, 1911)
Euptychia ordinata
 
Euptychia meta Weymer, 1911
Euptychia meta

Euptychia mollina (Hübner, [1813])
Euptychia mollina
 
Euptychia westwoodi Butler, 1867
Euptychia westwoodi Butler, 1867
 
Related publications:
  • Ackery, P.R. 1988. Hostplants and classification: a review of nymphalid butterflies. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 33: 95-203 Link
  • Murray, D. & Prowell, D. (2005) Molecular phylogenetics and evolutionary history of the neotropical Satyrine Subtribe Euptychiina (Nymphalidae: Satyrinae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 34: 67–80. Link
  • Peña, C., Wahlberg, N., Weingartner, E., Kodandaramaiah, U., Nylin, S., Freitas, A. and A.V.Z. Brower (2006) Higher level phylogeny of Satyrinae butterflies (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) based on DNA sequence data. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 40: 29–49. Link
  • Singer, M.C., Ehrlich, P.R. and Gilbert, L.E. 1971. Butterfly feeding on Lycopsid. Science 172: 1341-1342. Link
  • Singer, M.C. and Mallet, J. 1986. Moss-Feeding by a Satyrine butterfly. Journal of Research on the Lepidoptera 24(4): 392. Link
 
Last Updated ( Tuesday, 11 November 2008 06:12 )