Lycaenidae

Short description: Family of butterflies

Lycaenidae

The large blue, a lycaenid butterfly
Scientific classification
Kingdom:  | Animalia
Phylum:  | Arthropoda
Class:  | Insecta
Order:  | Lepidoptera
Superfamily:  | Papilionoidea
Family:  | Lycaenidae
Leach, 1815
Subfamilies

* Aphnaeinae
* Curetinae – sunbeams
* Lycaeninae – coppers
* Miletinae – harvesters
* Polyommatinae – blues
* Poritiinae
* Theclinae – hairstreaks, elfins

and see text or List of lycaenid genera

Brown hairstreak (Thecla betulae) Loxura atymnus

Lycaenidae is the second-largest family of butterflies (behind Nymphalidae, brush-footed butterflies), with over 6,000 species worldwide,[1] whose members are also called gossamer-winged butterflies. They constitute about 30% of the known butterfly species.

The family comprises seven subfamilies, including the blues (Polyommatinae), the coppers (Lycaeninae), the hairstreaks (Theclinae), and the harvesters (Miletinae).

## Contents

* 1 Description, food, and life cycle
* 2 Subfamilies
* 3 See also
* 4 References
* 5 Further reading
* 6 External links

## Description, food, and life cycle

Adults are small, under 5 cm usually, and brightly coloured, sometimes with a metallic gloss. Lycaenidae wings are generally blue or green. More than half of these butterflies depend on ants in some way.[2]

Larvae are often flattened rather than cylindrical, with glands that may produce secretions that attract and subdue ants. Their cuticles tend to be thickened. Some larvae are capable of producing vibrations and low sounds that are transmitted through the substrates they inhabit. They use these sounds to communicate with ants.[3][4]

Adult individuals often have hairy antenna-like tails complete with black and white annulated (ringed) appearance. Many species also have a spot at the base of the tail and some turn around upon landing to confuse potential predators from recognizing the true head orientation. This causes predators to approach from the true head end resulting in early visual detection or to attack the false head ending up with a beak of dusty scales.[5]

Lycaenid caterpillars are diverse in their food habits and apart from phytophagy, some are entomophagous, feeding on aphids, scale insects, and ant larvae. Some lycaenids even exploit their association with ants by inducing ants to feed them by regurgitation, a process called trophallaxis. Not all lycaenid butterflies need ants, but about 75% of species associate with ants,[3] a relationship called myrmecophily. These associations can be mutualistic, parasitic, or predatory depending on the species.

In some species, larvae are attended and protected by ants while feeding on the host plant, and the ants receive sugar-rich honeydew from them, throughout the larval life, and in some species during the pupal stage. In other species, only the first few instars are spent on the plant, and the remainder of the larval lifespan is spent as a predator within the ant nest. It becomes a parasite, feeding on ant regurgitations, or a predator on the ant larvae.[3] The caterpillars pupate inside the ants' nest and the ants continue to look after the pupae. Just before the adults emerge, the wings of the butterfly inside the pupal case detach from it, and the pupa becomes silvery. The adult butterfly emerges from the pupa after three to four weeks, still inside the ant nest. The butterfly must crawl out of the ant nest before it can expand its wings.

Several evolutionary adaptations enable these associations, including small glands on the skin of the caterpillars called "pore cupola organs". Caterpillars of many species have a gland on the seventh abdominal segment that produces honeydew and is called the "dorsal nectary gland" (also called "Newcomer's gland"). An eversible organ called the "tentacular organ" is present on the eighth abdominal segment and this is cylindrical and topped with a ring of spikes and emits chemical signals which are believed to help in communicating with ants.[6]

## Subfamilies

Mating Cyaniris semiargus

Many taxonomists only include the Lycaeninae, Theclinae, Polyommatinae, Poritiinae, Miletinae, and Curetinae under the Lycaenidae.[7][8] The Aphnaeinae, which used to be a tribe (Aphnaeini) within the Theclinae, were recently given subfamily rank too.[9]

* Curetinae – sunbeams (Oriental or Palaearctic). Selected species:
* Curetis thetis – Indian sunbeam
* Miletinae – harvesters (mostly African, or Oriental, one Nearctic), probably all feed on aphids or their secretions. Selected species:
* Liphyra brassolis – moth butterfly (largest lycaenid)
* Poritiinae (Oriental and Afrotropical)
* Aphnaeinae (Afrotropical and Oriental)
* Theclinae – hairstreaks (usually tailed) and elfins (not tailed) (global). Selected species:
* Arhopala – oakblues
* Atlides halesus – great purple hairstreak
* Eumaeus atala – Atala
* Satyrium pruni – black hairstreak
* Lycaeninae – coppers (Holarctic). Selected species:
* Iophanus pyrrhias – Guatemalan copper
* Lycaena boldenarum – boulder copper
* Lycaena epixanthe – bog copper
* Lycaena rauparaha – Rauparaha's copper
* Lycaena dispar – large copper
* Lycaena phlaeas – small copper
* Lycaena heteronea – blue copper
* Polyommatinae – blues (global). Selected species:
* Celastrina ladon – spring azure
* Chilades – jewel blues
* Cupido comyntas – eastern tailed-blue
* Cupido minimus – small blue
* Cyaniris semiargus – mazarine blue
* Euphilotes battoides allyni – El Segundo blue
* Euphilotes pallescens arenamontana – Sand Mountain blue
* Glaucopsyche lygdamus – silvery blue
* Glaucopsyche lygdamus palosverdesensis – Palos Verdes blue
* Glaucopsyche xerces (extinct) – Xerces blue
* Icaricia icarioides fenderi – Fender's blue
* Phengaris arion – large blue
* Polyommatus icarus – common blue
* Pseudozizeeria maha – pale grass blue
* Plebejus argus – silver-studded blue
* Talicada nyseus – red Pierrot

Some older classifications used to include other subfamilies such as Liphyrinae (now Liphyrini, a tribe within Miletinae), Lipteninae (now Liptenini, a tribe within Poritiinae), or Riodininae (now a separate family: Riodinidae).

The fossil genus Lithodryas is usually (but not unequivocally) placed here; Lithopsyche is sometimes placed here, but sometimes in the Riodininae.

## See also

* List of lycaenid genera

## References

1. ↑ Pierce, Naomi E.; Braby, Michael F.; Heath, Alan; Lohman, David J.; Mathew, John; Rand, Douglas B.; Travassos, Mark A. (January 2002). "The Ecology and Evolution of Ant Association in the Lycaenidae (Lepidoptera)". Annual Review of Entomology 47 (1): 733–771. doi:10.1146/annurev.ento.47.091201.145257. PMID 11729090.
2. ↑ Ueda, Shouhei; Komatsu, Takashi; Itino, Takao; Arai, Ryusuke; Sakamoto, Hironori (3 November 2016). "Host-ant specificity of endangered large blue butterflies (Phengaris spp., Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae) in Japan". Scientific Reports 6 (1): 36364. doi:10.1038/srep36364. PMID 27808223. Bibcode: 2016NatSR...636364U.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Pierce, Naomi E.; Braby, Michael F.; Heath, Alan; Lohman, David J.; Mathew, John; Rand, Douglas B.; Travassos, Mark A. (January 2002). "The Ecology and Evolution of Ant Association in the Lycaenidae (Lepidoptera)". Annual Review of Entomology 47 (1): 733–771. doi:10.1146/annurev.ento.47.091201.145257. ProQuest 222345887. PMID 11729090.
4. ↑ DeVries, Philip J. (1992). "Singing Caterpillars, Ants and Symbiosis". Scientific American 267 (4): 76–83. doi:10.1038/scientificamerican1092-76. Bibcode: 1992SciAm.267d..76D.
5. ↑ Robbins, Robert K. (1981). "The 'False Head' Hypothesis: Predation and Wing Pattern Variation of Lycaenid Butterflies". The American Naturalist 118 (5): 770–775. doi:10.1086/283868.
6. ↑ "Lycaenid Butterflies and Ants". Australian Museum. Archived 18 November 2007.
7. ↑ Brower, Andrew V. Z. (2008). "Lycaenidae [Leach] 1815". Version 25 April 2008 (under construction). The Tree of Life Web Project.
8. ↑ Ackery, P. R.; de Jong, R. & Vane-Wright, R. I. (1999). "The butterflies: Hedyloidea, Hesperioidea, and Papilionoidea". Pages 264-300 in: Lepidoptera: Moths and Butterflies. 1. Evolution, Systematics, and Biogeography. Handbook of Zoology Vol. IV, Part 35. N. P. Kristensen, ed. De Gruyter, Berlin and New York.
9. ↑ Boyle, John H.; Kaliszewska, Zofia A.; Espeland, Marianne; Suderman, Tamara R.; Fleming, Jake; Heath, Alan; Pierce, Naomi E. (January 2015). "Phylogeny of the A phnaeinae: myrmecophilous A frican butterflies with carnivorous and herbivorous life histories". Systematic Entomology 40 (1): 169–182. doi:10.1111/syen.12098. Bibcode: 2015SysEn..40..169B.

## Further reading

* Bridges, Charles A. (1994). Catalogue of the Family-Group, Genus-Group and Species-Group Names of the Riodinidae & Lycaenidae (Lepidoptera) of the World. Urbana, Ill.
* Eliot, J. N. (1973). "The higher classification of the Lycaenidae (Lepidoptera): a tentative arrangement". Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) (Entomology). 28: 371–505.
* Glassberg, Jeffrey (2001). Butterflies Through Binoculars, The West
* Guppy, Crispin S. & Shepard, Jon H. (2001). Butterflies of British Columbia
* James, David G. and Nunnallee, David (2011). Life Histories of Cascadia Butterflies
* Pelham, Jonathan (2008). Catalogue of the Butterflies of the United States and Canada
* Pyle, Robert Michael (2002). The Butterflies of Cascadia

## External links

| Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lycaenidae.

|

* Tree of Life Web Project
* Bartlett, Troy (18 December 2017). "Family Lycaenidae – Blues, Coppers, Hairstreaks, Harvesters". https://bugguide.net/node/view/194.
* "Family Lycaenidae". Insecta.pro.
* "Lycaenidae". National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Taxonomy/Browser/wwwtax.cgi?id=124406.
* ITIS
* Royal Museum for Central Africa Images of Lycaenidae [1]
* Butterflies and Moths of North America
* Butterflies of America

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Extant Lepidoptera families

* Kingdom: Animalia
* Phylum: Arthropoda
* Class: Insecta
* Subclass: Pterygota
* Infraclass: Neoptera
* Superorder: Endopterygota

Suborder Zeugloptera

| Micropterigoidea|

Micropterigidae (mandibulate archaic moths)

|

Suborder Aglossata

| Agathiphagoidea|

Agathiphagidae (kauri moths)

|

Suborder Heterobathmiina

| Heterobathmioidea|

Heterobathmiidae

|

Suborder Glossata

| Dacnonypha|

| Eriocranioidea|

* Eriocraniidae

|

Acanthoctesia|

| Acanthopteroctetoidea|

* Acanthopteroctetidae (archaic sun moths)

|

Lophocoronina|

| Lophocoronoidea|

Lophocoronidae

|

Neopseustina|

| Neopseustoidea|

* Aenigmatineidae
* Neopseustidae (archaic bell moths)

|

Exoporia|

| Hepialoidea|

* Anomosetidae
* Hepialidae (swift moths, ghost moths)
* Neotheoridae (Amazonian primitive ghost moths)
* Palaeosetidae (miniature ghost moths)
* Prototheoridae (African primitive ghost moths)

|

Mnesarchaeoidea|

* Mnesarchaeidae (New Zealand primitive moths)

| M

| Adeloidea|

Adelidae (fairy longhorn moths)
Cecidosidae
Heliozelidae
Incurvariidae
Prodoxidae (yucca moths)

|

Andesianoidea|

* Andesianidae (Andean endemic moths)

Nepticuloidea|

Nepticulidae (pigmy, or midget moths)
Opostegidae (white eyecap moths)

Palaephatoidea|

Palaephatidae (Gondwanaland moths)

Tischerioidea|

Tischeriidae (trumpet leaf miner moths)

| Simaethistoidea|

Simaethistidae

|

Tineoidea|

Acrolophidae (burrowing webworm moths)
Arrhenophanidae
Eriocottidae (Old World spiny-winged moths)
Lypusidae
Psychidae (bagworm moths)
Tineidae (fungus moths)

Gracillarioidea|

Bucculatricidae (ribbed cocoon makers)
Douglasiidae (Douglas moths)
Gracillariidae
Roeslerstammiidae

Yponomeutoidea|

Acrolepiidae (false diamondback moths)
Bedelliidae
Glyphipterigidae (sedge moths)
Heliodinidae
Lyonetiidae
Plutellidae
Yponomeutidae (ermine moths)
Ypsolophidae

Gelechioidea|

Autostichidae
Batrachedridae
Blastobasidae
Coleophoridae (case-bearers, case moths)
Cosmopterigidae (cosmet moths)
Elachistidae (grass-miner moths)
Gelechiidae (twirler moths)
Lecithoceridae (long-horned moths)
Metachandidae
Momphidae (mompha moths)
Oecophoridae (concealer moths)
Pterolonchidae
Scythrididae (flower moths)
Xyloryctidae (timber moths)

Galacticoidea|

Galacticidae

Zygaenoidea|

Heterogynidae
Zygaenidae (burnet, forester, or smoky moths)
Himantopteridae
Lacturidae
Somabrachyidae
Megalopygidae (flannel moths)
Aididae
Anomoeotidae
Cyclotornidae
Epipyropidae (planthopper parasite moths)
Dalceridae (slug caterpillars)
Limacodidae (slug, or cup moths)

Cossoidea|

Cossidae (carpenter millers, or goat moths)
Dudgeoneidae (dudgeon carpenter moths)

Sesioidea|

Brachodidae (little bear moths)
giant butterfly-moths, sun moths)
Sesiidae (clearwing moths)

Choreutoidea|

Choreutidae (metalmark moths)

Tortricoidea|

Tortricidae (tortrix moths)

Urodoidea|

Urodidae (false burnet moths)

Schreckensteinioidea|

Schreckensteiniidae (bristle-legged moths)

Epermenioidea|

Epermeniidae (fringe-tufted moths)

Alucitoidea|

Alucitidae (many-plumed moths)
Tineodidae (false plume moths)

Pterophoroidea|

Pterophoridae (plume moths)

Whalleyanoidea|

Whalleyanidae

Immoidea|

Immidae

Copromorphoidea|

Copromorphidae (tropical fruitworm moths)
Carposinidae (fruitworm moths)

Thyridoidea|

Thyrididae (picture-winged leaf moths)

Calliduloidea|

Callidulidae (Old World butterfly-moths)

Papilionoidea
(butterflies)|

Papilionidae (swallowtail butterflies)
Hedylidae (American moth-butterflies)
Hesperiidae (skippers)
Pieridae (whites, yellows, orangetips, sulphurs)
Riodinidae (metalmarks)
blues, coppers and relatives)
Nymphalidae (brush-footed, or four-footed butterflies)

Hyblaeoidea|

Hyblaeidae (teak moths)

Pyraloidea|

Pyralidae (snout moths)
Crambidae (grass moth)

Mimallonoidea|

Mimallonidae (sack bearer moths)

Lasiocampoidea|

Lasiocampidae (eggars, snout moths, or lappet moths)

Bombycoidea|

Anthelidae (Australian lappet moth)
Apatelodidae (American silkworm moths)
Bombycidae (silk moths)
Brahmaeidae (Brahmin moths)
Carthaeidae (Dryandra moth)
Endromidae (Kentish glory and relatives)
Eupterotidae
Phiditiidae
Saturniidae (saturniids)
Sphingidae (hawk moths, sphinx moths and hornworms)

Noctuoidea|

Erebidae (underwing, tiger, tussock, litter, snout, owlet moths)
Euteliidae
Noctuidae (daggers, sallows, owlet moths, quakers, cutworms, darts)
Nolidae (tuft moths)
Notodontidae (prominents, kittens)
Oenosandridae

Drepanoidea|

Drepanidae (hook-tips)
Cimeliidae (gold moths)
Doidae

Geometroidea|

Sematuridae
Pseudobistonidae
Epicopeiidae (oriental swallowtail moths)
Uraniidae
Geometridae (geometer moths)

Superfamily unassigned|

Millieriidae

Note: division Monotrysia is not a clade.

* Taxonomy of the Lepidoptera
* Lists by region

Wikidata ☰ Q158717 entry

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