Aphnaeinae

Subfamily of butterflies

Aphnaeinae

Club silverline, Cigaritis syama
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Lycaenidae
Subfamily:	Aphnaeinae Distant, 1884

The Aphnaeinae are a subfamily of butterflies in the family Lycaenidae.

Systematics

Until recently, this taxon used to be considered a tribe (called Aphnaeini) within the subfamily Theclinae.

History

The Aphnaeinae is known as a Afrotropical and Oriental species that comes from a subfamily of 278 described species. What makes them distinct is that they have ants that work mutualistic with this organism for the reason that ants defend the larvae from predators and the larvae give production of high nutrients to the ants. What makes Aphnaeinae to stand out among the Lycaenidae is ^[1]“for exhibiting considerable variability in feeding strategies within a single subfamily, especially considering the relatively small size of the group” (Boyle et al., 2015).

Genera

Modern authors recognize 17 genera:^[1]

Aloeides Hübner, [1819]
Aphnaeus Hübner, [1819]
Argyraspodes Tite & Dickson, 1973
Axiocerses Hübner, [1819]
Cesa Seven, 1997
Chloroselas Butler, [1886]
Chrysoritis Butler, [1898]
Cigaritis Donzel, 1847
Crudaria Wallengren, 1875
Erikssonia Trimen, 1891
Lipaphnaeus Aurivillius, 1916
Phasis Hübner, [1819]
Pseudaletis Druce, 1888
Trimenia Tite & Dickson, 1973
Tylopaedia Tite & Dickson, 1973
Vansomerenia Heath, 1997
Zeritis Boisduval, [1836]

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Aphnaeinae.

^ ^a ^b Boyle, J.H., Kaliszewska, Z.A., Espeland, M., Suderman, T.R., Fleming, J., Heath, A., & Pierce, N.E., 2015. Phylogeny of the Aphnaeinae: myrmecophilous African butterflies with carnivorous and herbivorous life histories. Systematic entomology 40(1): 169–182.