Limenitidinae

Niklas Wahlberg

The subfamily Limenitidinae has been much abused and has acted as a "trash can" subfamily for all strange groups of species with unknown affinities. Molecular work has finally pinned down the meaning of the subfamily, consisting of just the tribe Limenitidini as circumscribed in Harvey's classification of Nymphalidae. The phylogenetic relationships of the major lineages in the subfamily have now been studied by Dhungel and Wahlberg (2018), and in addition a number of genus level studies have been published. The subfamily comprises 1100 species placed in 41 genera and 7 tribes:

Parthenini
Cymothoini
Adoliadini
Neptini
Pseudacraeini
Limenitidini
Pseudoneptini

Key publications for Limenitidinae systematics:

1. Chermock, J. L. 1950. A generic revision of the Limenitini of the world. American Midland Naturalist 43: 513-569.
2. Dhungel, B. & Wahlberg, N. 2018. Molecular systematics of the subfamily Limenitidinae (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae). PeerJ 6: e4311. doi:10.7717/peerj.4311
3. Mullen, S. P. 2006. Wing pattern evolution and the origins of mimicry among North American admiral butterflies (Nymphalidae: Limenitis). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 39:747-758.
4. Willmott, K. R. 2003. Cladistic analysis of the Neotropical butterfly genus Adelpha (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae), with comments on the subtribal classification of Limenitidini. Systematic Entomology 28: 279-322.
5. Willmott, K. R. 2003. The genus Adelpha: its systematics, biology and biogeography (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae: Limenitidini). Scientific Publishers, Gainsville, FL, USA.