Elymniini Explained

The Elymniini is one of the tribes of the subfamily Satyrinae. If the subfamily Satyrinae elevate to family status, this tribe shall be treated as subfamily Elymniinae. Elymniini was formerly a large group, but recently, it is considered to be include only one genus, Elymnias, according to molecular phylogenetic analyses.

Systematics and taxonomy

The systematics and taxonomy of Satyrinae began to be heavily revised around the 2000s, and this revision continues to this day. Consequently, the subdivisions of this tribe have also undergone significant changes in recent years.

The higher level classification of Satyrine butterfly developed by became the basis for later taxonomic studies. The work which based on adult morphology, recognised seven subfamilies in the family Satyridae: Haeterinae, Brassolinae, Biinae, Elymniinae, Eritinae, Ragadiinae and Satyrinae, and four tribes within Elymniinae: Lethini, Zetherini, Elymniini and Mycalesini. A later work,, largely followed Miller's classification, but downranked the family Satyridae to the subfamily Satyrinae, with the consequent downranking of the subdivisions : subfamilies to tribes, tribes to subtribes, such as Elymniinae to the tribe Elymniini and Elymniini to the subtribe Elymniiti. In these classifications, Elymniinae/Elymniini was the second largest subgroup of Satyrine butterflies after Satyrinae/Satyrini. However, the morphological key characters that defined this group were not entirely definitive and the phylogenetic relationship of this group with other groups in the family/subfamily was confused.

The confusion over the taxonomy and phylogeny of Satyrinae is gradually being resolved by recent developments in molecular phylogenetic studies. was the first to develop a comprehensive phylogenetic hypothesis of Satyrinae since Miller, and showed that most of the families previously recognised were paraphyletic or polyphyletic. In the classification proposed in the work, Elymniini included only genus Elymnias, and the genera formerly included in that tribe, such as Lethe, Pararge and Mycalesis, were transferred to several tribes and subtribes, such as Lethina, Parargina and Mycalesina in Satyrini. Subsequent analyses have largely followed this same classification scheme, and also, all of the genera included in Elymniini by Miller were synonymized with Elymnias. Thus, the tribe Elymniini should include only a single genus Elymnias, according to current phylogenetic understanding.

However, this classification is still new and may not always be used in catalogs, picture books, etc. Moreover, phylogenetic analyses have not yet resolved the problems. For example, some analyses relate Hyantis and Morphopsis to this tribe, but others do not, therefore, it is not clear to which tribe these two genera should be placed in. In addition, several different hypotheses have been proposed for the phylogenetic relationship between the tribe Elymniini and other tribes within Satyrinae, thus there is no consensus on the phylogenetic position of this tribe in the subfamily.

!! style="width:24%" style="background-color:#b0c4de"

Family		Satyridae	Subfamily	Satyrinae	Satyrinae
Subfamily		Elymniinae	Tribe	Elymniini	Elymniini
Tribe		Elymniini	Subtribe	Elymniiti	Elymnias
Genera		Elymnias Elymniopsis	Genera	Elymnias Elymniopsis
Tribe		Lethini	Subtribe	Lethiti
Genera		Enodia Lethe Neope Satyrodes Kirinia Lasiommata Lopinga Pararge Ethope Neorina	Genera	Enodia Lethe Neope Satyrodes Kirinia Lasiommata Lopinga Pararge Ethope Neorina
Tribe		Mycalesini	Subtribe	Mycalesiti
Genera		Bicyclus Hallelesis Henotesia Mycalesis Orsotriaena	Genera	Bicyclus Hallelesis Henotesia Mycalesis Orsotriaena
Tribe		Zetherini	Subtribe	Zetheriti
Genera		Zethera	Genera	Zethera
			Tribe		Zetherini
			Genera		Neorina Penthema Ethope Zethera
Subfamily		Satyrinae	Tribe	Satyrini	Satyrini
			Subtribe		Parargina
			Genera		Kirinia Lopinga Lasiommata Pararge
			Subtribe		Lethina
			Genera		Lethe Enodia Satyrodes Neope
			Subtribe		Mycalesina
			Genera		Bicyclus Hallelesis Henotesia Mycalesis
Tribe		Coenonymphini	Subtribe	Coenonymphiti	Coenonymphina
Genera		Not mentioned on this page	Genera	Not mentioned on this page	Orsotriaena
Tribe		Hypocystini	Subtribe	Hypocystiti
Genera		Not mentioned on this page	Genera	Not mentioned on this page

References

Sources

• Lu. Chen. Niklas. Wahlberg. Cheng-Qing. Liao. Chen-Bin. Wang. Fang-Zhou. Ma. Guo-Hua. Huang. Fourteen complete mitochondrial genomes of butterflies from the genus Lethe (Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae, Satyrinae) with mitogenome-based phylogenetic analysis. Genomics. 112. 6. 2020. 4435–4441. 10.1016/j.ygeno.2020.07.042. 32745503. 220966325.
• Book: Harvey , D.J. . species:Donald James Harvey. Higher classification of the Nymphalidae, Appendix B.. Nijhout, H.F.. The Development and Evolution of Butterfly Wing Patterns. Smithsonian Institution Press. 1991. 255–273.
• Ullasa. Kodandaramaiah. Carlos. Peña. Michael F.. Braby. Roger. Grund. Chris J.. Müller. Sören. Nylin. Niklas. Wahlberg. Phylogenetics of Coenonymphina (Nymphalidae: Satyrinae) and the problem of rooting rapid radiations. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 54. 2. 2010. 386–394. 10.1016/j.ympev.2009.08.012. 19686856. 2010MolPE..54..386K.
• Book: Lamas , G. . species:Gerardo Lamas. Checklist: Part 4A. Hesperioidea-Papilionoidea. Atlas of neotropical Lepidoptera. Association for Tropical Lepidoptera/Scientific Publishers. 2004. 0945417284. 58754755.
• M.A.. Marín. species:Mario Alejandro Marín. C.. Peña. A.V.L.. Freitas. N.. Wahlberg. S.I.. Uribe. From the Phylogeny of the Satyrinae Butterflies to the Systematics of Euptychiina (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae): History, Progress and Prospects. Neotropical Entomology. 40. 1. 2011. 1–13. 10.1590/S1519-566X2011000100001 . 21437476. free.
• Lee D.. Miller. species:Lee Denmar Miller. The higher classification, phylogeny and zoogeography of the Satyridae (Lepidoptera). Memoirs of the American Entomological Society. 24. 1968. 1–174.
• Carlos. Peña. species:Carlos Peña. Niklas. Wahlberg. Elisabet. Weingartner. Ullasa. Kodandaramaiah. Sören. Nylin. André V.L.. Freitas . Andrew V.Z.. Brower. Higher level phylogeny of Satyrinae butterflies (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) based on DNA sequence data. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 40. 1. 2006. 29–49. 10.1016/j.ympev.2006.02.007. 16563805. 2006MolPE..40...29P.
• Carlos. Peña. Niklas. Wahlberg. Prehistorical climate change increased diversification of a group of butterflies. Biology Letters. 4. 2008. 3. 274–278. 10.1098/rsbl.2008.0062. 18364308. 2610051.
• Web site: Niklas. Wahlberg. species:Niklas Wahlberg. The Nymphalidae Systematics Group.
  • Web site: Carlos. Peña. Niklas. Wahlberg. Satyrinae. NYMPHALIDAE.net. .
  • Web site: Niklas. Wahlberg. Elymniini. NYMPHALIDAE.net. 2018.
  • Web site: Niklas. Wahlberg. The higher classification of Nymphalidae. NYMPHALIDAE.net. 2019.
• Chia-Hsuan. Wei. species:Chia-Hsuan Wei. David J.. Lohman. Djunijanti. Peggie. Shen-Horn. Yen. An illustrated checklist of the genus Elymnias Hübner, 1818 (Nymphalidae, Satyrinae). ZooKeys. 2017. 676. 47–152. 10.3897/zookeys.676.12579. 28769686. 5523206. free. 2017ZooK..676...47W.
• Mingsheng. Yang. Yalin. Zhang. Phylogenetic utility of ribosomal genes for reconstructing the phylogeny of five Chinese satyrine tribes (Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae). ZooKeys. 2015. 488. 105–120. 10.3897/zookeys.488.9171. 25878526. 4389127. free. 2015ZooK..488..105Y.
• Xian-bing. YIN. Jia-sheng. HAO. Li. XU. Guo-ping. ZHU. Dun-yuan. HUANG. Hong-chun. PAN. 基于线粒体 ND1 和COI 基因序列探讨锯眼蝶 亚科主要类群的系统发生关系. Phylogentic Relationships of Butterflies in the Subfamily Elymninae (Lepidoptera: Satyridae) Based on Mitochondrial ND1 and COI Gene Sequences. 动物学研究 Zoological Research. 28. 5. 2007. 477–484. 0254-5853. zh.

External links

• Elymniini at NYMPHALIDAE.net
• Elymniini Herrich-Schaeffer 1864 at TREE OF LIFE web project
• マネシヒカゲ族（Elymniini）のページ at Pteron World (in Japanese)