Junonia

Junonia is a genus of nymphalid butterflies, described by Jacob Hübner in 1819.[1] They are commonly known as buckeyes, pansies or commodores. This genus flies on every continent except Antarctica. The genus contains roughly 30 to 35 species.

This article is about the butterfly. For the Roman colony, see Colonia Junonia. For the sea snail, see Scaphella junonia.

Junonia
Junonia villida
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Nymphalidae
Tribe: Junoniini
Genus: Junonia
Hübner, [1819]
Type species
Junonia evarete
(Cramer, 1779)
Species

About 30–35, see text

Synonyms
  • Alcyoneis Hübner, [1819]
  • Aresta Billberg, 1820
  • Kamilla Collins & Larsen, 1991

Description

These butterflies are medium to large (wingspan 40–110 mm). The ground colour is brown or grey suffused blue. Spots on the wings are orange, blue or pink and sometimes large. Many of the species can occur in several colour forms. The head is of moderate size with smooth, prominent eyes. The palpi are rather long, sharply pointed, ascending, generally convergent and scaly, sometimes more or less hairy. The antennae are of moderate length, generally with a rather short, abruptly formed club. The thorax is robust, ovate, rather sparingly clothed with hairs. The wing characters are: large, broad, variable in outline. Forewing: costa more or less arched, sometimes very strongly so; apical portion more or less produced, sometimes very prominent, with a strong projection on the hind margin at the extremity of the first discoidal nervule; hind margin always more or less dentate and emarginate, with, in many species, a considerable projection at extremity of third median nervule; inner margin nearly straight, or slightly emarginate about centre; discoidal cell generally closed by a slender nervule. Hindwing: costa strongly arched at base, and more or less so throughout; hind margin always more or less scalloped, sometimes simply rounded (without any marked projections), sometimes with a more or less elongate production of anal angle, and occasionally with a longer or shorter projection of hind margin at extremity of first median nervule; inner margins deeply grooved and entirely covering the under surface of the abdomen; discoidal cell generally open. The abdomen short, compressed, rather slender.

The larvae are rather stout, almost of equal thickness throughout, armed with strong branched spines; sometimes with two short, similar spines on head. The pupae are moderately angulated, with raised tubercles on the back, head slightly bifid. Sometimes hardly angulated, the anterior portions more rounded.

Biology

Junonia are good fliers. The larvae feed on a wide variety of plants, among others Labiatae, Acanthaceae, Amaranthaceae, Scrophulariaceae, Onagraceae, Leguminosae, Balsaminaceae, Gramineae, Melastomataceae, Plantaginaceae, Aucubaceae and Compositae.

Taxonomy

The leaf butterflies J. ansorgei and J. cymodoce (both from Africa) have traditionally been included in Kallima, but this genus is now usually limited to Asian species. Instead of being placed in Junonia, the two are sometimes awarded their own genus, Kamilla. The leaf butterfly J. tugela is sometimes included in Precis instead of Junonia.

The species in Junonia:[2][3][4]

  • J. almana
  • J. artaxia
  • J. atlites
  • J. chorimene
  • J. coenia
  • J. goudotii
  • J. hedonia
  • J. hierta
  • J. iphita
  • J. lemonias
  • J. natalica
  • J. neildi
  • J. nigrosuffusa
  • J. oenone
  • J. orithya
  • J. rhadama
  • J. sophia
  • J. stygia
  • J. terea
  • J. villida
  • J. zonalis

References
  1. Hübner, J. Verzeichniss bekannter Schmettlinge, 17-176, 1819.
  2. "Junonia Hübner, [1819]" at Markku Savela's Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms
  3. Junoniini Archived 2010-06-11 at the Wayback Machine, Nymphalidae.net
  4. Cong, Q., Zhang, J., Shen, J.H., Cao, X.L, Brévignon, C. & Grishin, N.V. 2020. Speciation in North American Junonia from a genomic perspective. Systematic Entomology 45(4): 803–837. DOI: 10.1111/syen.12428.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.