Family RIODINIDAE Grote, 1895

Museums

Regional Maps

Introduction

Riodinidae have tornus of hind wing rounded and weakly lobed towards termen; antennae relatively close together at base; radial vein of fore wing with all branches present, with R1 touching Sc for some distance before running separately to costa; males have only four normal functional legs, with fore legs reduced in size and tarsi fused into a single segment without claws; females have six normal functional legs, with fore tarsi five segmented and with paired apical claws. They are small to medium-sized butterflies.

The higher classification of the Riodinidae was revised by Harvey (1987) based on morphological characters and, more recently, Campbell et al. (2000) undertook a limited molecular phylogenetic study based on a single nuclear gene. Several workers have long advocated family-level status based on the presence of several unique character states, but only recently has strong empirical support for monophyly and a sister group relationship with the Lycaenidae been established (Campbell et al. 2000; Wahlberg et al. 2005). Five subfamilies were recognised by Harvey (1987) and DeVries (1997), but only members of the Nemeobiinae occur in Australia and elsewhere in the Old World; the four other subfamilies are largely restricted to the Neotropical Region. Phylogenetic analyses of combined molecular and morphological data sets of a limited taxon set (Wahlberg et al. 2005) suggests the following topology among the five subfamilies: (Riodininae + Corrachiinae) + Euselasiinae + (Styginae + Nemeobiinae).

Seraphim et al. (2018) updated Espeland et al. (2015) phylogeny of the Riodinidae, based mostly on taxa from the Neotropics (67% of all genera) and a larger molecular data set (9 genes), and proposed a new higher classification in which two families were recognized: Riodinidae and Nemeobiinae. The Nemeobiinae were divided into two tribes: the Nemeobiini and its sister group the Neotropical Euselasiini stat. nov. The Nemeobiini were further subdivided into two subtribes: the Old World Abisarina stat. nov. (which includes the two genera from the Australian region) and the Nemeobiina.

Only a single species of Riodinidae in the genus Praetaxila Fruhstorfer occurs in Australia. The larva feeds on Myrsinaceae.

General References

Campbell, D.L., Brower, A.V.Z. & Pierce, N.E. 2000. Molecular evolution of the Wingless gene and its implications for the phylogenetic placement of the butterfly family Riodinidae (Lepidoptera: Papilionoidea). Molecular Biology and Evolution 17: 684–696

DeVries, P.J. 1997. The Butterflies of Costa Rica and their Natural History. Volume II: Riodinidae. Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press xx viii +288 pp.

Espeland, M., Hall, J.P.W., DeVries, P.J., et al. 2015. Ancient Neotropical origin and recent recolonisation: phylogeny, biogeography ande diversification of the Riodinidae (Lepidoptera: Papilionoidea). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 93: 296-306

Harvey, D.J. 1987. The higher classification of the Riodinidae. Unpublished PhD Thesis. University of Texas, Austin.

Seraphim, N., Kaminski, L.A., DeVries, P.J., et al. 2018. Molecular phylogeny and higher systematics of the metalmark butterflies (Lepidoptera: Riodinidae). Systematic Entomology 43: 407-425

Wahlberg, N., Braby, M.F., Brower, A.V.Z., de Jong, R., Lee, M.-M., Nylin, S., Pierce, N.E., Sperling, F.A.H., Vila, R., Warren, A.D. & Zakharov, E. 2005. Synergistic effects of combining morphological and molecular data in resolving the phylogeny of butterflies and skippers. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 272: 1577–1586

History of changes