Eunica is a genus of nymphalid butterflies found in the Neotropical realm.
These butterflies have some eye-like spots on the wings. According to one research, there is an evolutionary tendency for decreasing of the number of spots.Garzón-Orduña, I.J., Silva-Brandão, K.L., Willmott, K., Freitas, A.V.L., Wahlberg, N. and Brower, A.V.Z. (2024), Wing pattern diversity in Eunica butterflies (Nymphalidae: Biblidinae): phylogenetic analysis implies decoupled adaptive trends in dorsal sexual dimorphism and ventral eyespot evolution. Cladistics, 40: 1-20. https://doi.org/10.1111/cla.12556
Species
The genus contains the following species, listed alphabetically:Epicaliini , Nymphalidae Study Group website"Eunica Hübner, " at Markku Savela's Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms, Butterflies of Amazonia
Eunica alpais (Godart, ) Eunica amelia (Cramer, ) Eunica amycla (Godart, ) Eunica anna (Cramer, 1780) Eunica araucana C. & R. Felder, 1862 Eunica bechina (Hewitson, 1852) Eunica brunnea Salvin, 1869 Eunica caelina (Godart, ) Eunica caralis (Hewitson, 1857) Eunica carias (Hewitson, 1857) Eunica chlorochroa (Salvin, 1869) - Mira purplewing Eunica clytia (Hewitson, 1852) Eunica concordia (Hewitson, 1852) – sandbar purplewing Eunica cuvierii (Godart, ) – Cuvier's purplewing Eunica eburnea Fruhstorfer, 1907 Eunica elegans Salvin, 1869 Eunica eurota (Cramer, ) Eunica evelide Bates, 1864 Eunica incognita Jenkins, 1990 Eunica ingens Seitz, 1915 Eunica interphasis Jenkins, 1990 Eunica heraclites Gundlach, 1881 Eunica macris (Godart, ) Eunica maja (Fabricius, 1775) Eunica malvina Bates, 1864 – Malvina purplewing Eunica margarita (Godart, ) Eunica marsolia (Godart, ) Eunica mira Godman & Salvin, 1877 Eunica monima (Stoll, ) - dingy purplewing Eunica mygdonia (Godart, ) Eunica norica (Hewitson, 1852) – Norica purplewing Eunica olympias C. & R. Felder, 1862 Eunica orphise (Cramer, ) Eunica phasis C. & R. Felder, 1862 Eunica pomona (C. & R. Felder, ) – rounded purplewing Eunica pusilla Bates, 1864 - pusilla purplewing Eunica sophonisba (Cramer, ) – glorious purplewing Eunica sydonia (Godart, ) – Godart's purplewing Eunica tatila (Herrich-Schaeffer, ) – Florida purplewing Eunica venusia (C. & R. Felder, 1867) Eunica veronica Bates, 1864 Eunica viola Bates, 1864 Eunica violetta Staudinger, Eunica volumna (Godart, )
References
Jenkins, D. W. 1990. Neotropical Nymphalidae. VIII. Revision of Eunica. Bulletin of the Allyn Museum 131:1-175. Lamas, G. (ed.) 2004. Atlas of Neotropical Lepidoptera. (Checklist: Part 4A, Hesperioidea to Papilionoidea). Scientific Publishers, Gainesville, Florida.
External links Eunica, Tree of Life