Adelpha

Adelpha iphicla, photographed by Jesus Linares.

Belongs within: Nymphalidae.

Adelpha, the sisters, is a New World genus of butterflies with wings that are primarily dark brown above and black below, usually with lighter postdiscal stripes.

See also: Deceptive and poisonous sisters.

Characters (from Willmott 2003): Medium to large butterflies with essentially sexually monomorphic wing patterns, consisting of contrasting ventral and dorsal surfaces. Dorsal surface always with a dark brown ground colour and almost always a postdiscal band on one or both wings, which may be vertical or oblique, and orange, white, or red in colour; postdiscal series usually fused on the dorsal surface of the forewing to form a subapical marking. Ventral surface typically with a black ground colour which is usually obscured by much reddish brown colouring, and in addition to the postdiscal bands that appear on the dorsal surface it has a number of lighter postdiscal and submarginal lines and other more basal pattern elements; dark brown longitudinal line usually present on the hindwing ventral surface extending from the base of cell 3A-2A to the middle of the anal margin in this cell, though this line may be fused to a band of colour that fills the anterior half of the cell, or broken in the basal half of the wing; venal stripe usually present at vein 3A on the ventral hindwing, may be split along the vein into two halves and variously modified or reduced.

<==Adelpha
    |--A. cytherea S55
    |    |--A. c. cytherea S55
    |    `--A. c. lanilla Fruhstorfer 1915 S55
    |--A. erotia (Hewitson 1847) S55
    |--A. iphicla S55
    |    |--A. i. iphicla S55
    |    `--A. i. pharae Fruhstorfer 1915 S55
    |--A. lara S55
    |    |--A. l. lara S55
    |    `--A. l. mainas Fruhstorfer 1915 S55
    `--A. mesentina (Cramer 1779) S55

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[S55] Schröder, H. 1955. Eine Falter-Ausbeute aus dem westlichen Bolivien. (Ins. Lepid. Rhopal.) Senckenbergiana Biologica 36: 329-338.

Willmott, K. R. 2003. The Genus Adelpha: Its systematics, biology and biogeography (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae: Limenitidini). Scientific Publishers.