Nemeobiinae is a subfamily of Riodinidae, the metalmark family. The subfamily's members consist entirely of Old World members of the Riodinid family. Recent revisions to the subfamily have begun to include members located within the New World as well, however, the subfamily continues to encompass the entirety of the Old World Riodinids.
The subfamily are the only Riodinids that feed exclusively on members of the plant family Primulaceae, being the only Riodinids to do so, with the exception of Emesis diogenia.
Distribution The Nemeobiinae was erected to encompass the entirety of the 7 percent of Riodinids that reside within the Old World. This has remained true, however, recent studies have placed the New World subfamily of Euselasiinae within the Nemeobiinae, with Corrachia and Styx believed to be apomorphic Nemeobiines. The greater Riodinid family is believed to have evolved in the Neotropics and migrated to the Old World through the Bering land bridge during the Oligocene.
Of the Old World members of the Nemeobiinae, encompassing around 13 genera and 110 species, the majority (60 species) are concentrated in the Indomalayan realm of Southeast Asia. The remainder are found within the Afrotropical realm with 15 species, the Australasian realm with 28 (Praetaxila), and 1 species found in Europe (Hamearis). A single member of the subfamily exists on the continent of Australia, Praetaxila segecia. While most members of the Nemeobiinae are found within the tropics, a handful are found within temperate areas (Hamearis, Polycaena and Takashia).
Genera The Nemeobiinae have been fraught with revision and uncertainty throughout its entire existence. Seraphim et al. (2018) proposes through genetic analysis that the subfamily is split into two tribes, and the family would encompass members of the New World subfamily Euselasiinae as tribe Euselasiini within the Nemeobiinae, while Corrachia and Styx would be moved to the Nemeobiina. The following list follows from the revised classification by Seraphim et al. (2018).
Tribe: Nemeobiini Bates, 1868 Subtribe: Abisarina Abisara C. Felder & R. Felder, 1865 Afriodinia D'Abrera, 2009 Archigenes Fruhstorfer, 1914 Dicallaneura Butler, 1867 Laxita Butler, 1879 Paralaxita Eliot, 1978 Praetaxila Fruhstorfer, 1914 Saribia Butler, 1878 Sibosia Taxila Doubleday, 1847 Subtribe: Nemeobiina Corrachia Schaus, 1913 Dodona Hewitson, 1861 Hamearis Hübner, 1819 Polycaena Staudinger, 1886 Spitosa Stiboges Butler, 1876 Styx Staudinger, 1876 Takashia Okano & Okano, 1985 Zemeros Boisduval, 1836 Tribe: Euselasiini See the Euselasiinae article for further information. Euselasia Hübner, 1819 Hades Westwood, 1851 Methone E. Doubleday, 1847
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