True browns | |
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Peal's palmfly (Elymnias pealii, Elymniina) | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Arthropoda |
Class: | Insecta |
Order: | Lepidoptera |
(unranked): | Rhopalocera |
Superfamily: | Papilionoidea |
Family: | Nymphalidae |
Subfamily: | Satyrinae |
Tribe: | Elymniini |
Subtribes | |
Synonyms | |
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The Elymniini, or true browns, are one of the large tribes of the browns subfamily (Satyrinae) in the brush-footed butterfly family (Nymphalidae). Sometimes, they are elevated to subfamily status as Elymniinae.
They are commonly subdivided into four subtribes (tribes when considered a subfamily). The largest tribe is called Lethina, with Parargina usually treated as a junior synonym. But this is not correct as it seems: according to cladistic analysis of mtDNA and NADH dehydrogenase subunit 1 sequence data, the Parargina – i.e. the group around Pararge, including at least the very similar Lasiommata as well as Tatinga and it is the doubtfully distinct relative Chonala – form a distinct lineage after all, immediately basal to the distinctly apomorphic Mycalesina and the more plesiomorphic Lethina proper; the accurate circumscription of these subtribes remains yet undetermined. In any case, these three constitute the bulk of the tribe's diversity. The Elymniina and Zetherina, by contrast, quite certainly form a less diverse clade that diverged early on in the evolution of the tribe.