nymphalidae
nymphalidae (brush-footed butterflies)
Nymphalidae is a very varied collection of butterflies, forming the largest family with several thousand species. As would be expected, the range of shapes and colours in such a huge group is enormous, but there is a single unifying character that brings all the many disparate units together. This is the possession by all nymphalids of just two pairs of functioning legs. The front pair of legs is not used for locomotion, and indeed in many species is reduced to mere stumps, scarcely recognizable as legs. These stumps are often covered with conspicuous tufts of scales, giving rise to the name of “brush-footed butterflies.” This family includes some of the most powerful fliers within the Lepidoptera, and some species migrate over great distances.
In the past several of the current subfamilies were treated as full families. These were the browns (Satyridae), tigers (Ithiomiidae), snouts (Libytheidae), morphos (Morphidae), longwings (Heliconiidae), acraeas (Acraeidae), palm kings (Amathusiidae), owl butterflies (Brassolidae) and monarchs (Danaidae). Some specialists still treat these families as such, rather than including them within the Nymphalidae. The caterpillars are often extravagantly spiny, with bizarre outgrowths sticking out along the sides of the back, and in many species the head bears several horns.
Nymphalidae Butterflies
In adult nymphalidae butterflies, the first pair of legs are small or reduced, giving the family the other names of four-footed or brush-footed butterflies. The caterpillars are hairy or spiky with projections on the head, and the chrysalids have shiny spots. The forewing has the submedial vein (vein 1) unbranched and in one subfamily closed near base; medial vein with three branches, veins 2, 3 and 4; veins 5 and 6 arising from the points of junction of the discocellulars; subcostal vein and its continuation beyond apex of cell, vein 7, with never more than four branches, veins 8-11 ; 8 and 9 always arising from vein 7, 10 and also 11 sometimes from vein 7 but more often free, i.e. given off by the subcostal vein before apex of cell.[1] The hindwing has internal (1a) and precostal veins. The cell in both wings closed or open, often closed in the fore, open in the hind wing. Dorsal margin of hind wing channelled to receive the abdomen in many of the forms. Antennae are always with two grooves on the underside; club variable in shape. Throughout this family the front pair of legs in the male gender, and with three exceptions (Libythea, Pseudergolis and Calinaga) in the female also, is reduced in size and functionally impotent; in some the atrophy of the fore legs is considerable, e.g. Danainae and Satyrinae In many of the forms of these sub-families the fore legs are kept pressed against the underside of the thorax, and are in the male often very inconspicuous. Nymph-lidae