Maculinea

Large blue butterfly Maculinea arion, photographed by PJC & Co.

Belongs within: Polyommatini.

Maculinea includes the large blue butterflies of the Palaearctic region. Maculinea species have larvae that feed on flower buds in early instars, but spend their later instars in ant nests where they prey on ant larvae or are fed by adult ants (Als et al. 2004).

<==Maculinea van Eecke 1915 AV04
    |  i. s.: M. kondakovi [=M. alcon kondakovi] AV04
    |         M. kurentzovi AV04
    |         M. sinalcon [=M. teleius sinalcon] AV04
    |         M. xiaheana [=M. arion xiaheana] AV04
    |--+--M. alcon AV04
    |  |    |--M. a. alcon AV04
    |  |    |--M. a. monticola AV04
    |  |    `--M. a. xerophila AV04
    |  `--M. rebeli [=M. alcon rebeli] AV04
    `--+--+--M. nausithous AV04
       |  `--M. teleius AV04
       |       |--M. t. teleius AV04
       |       |--M. t. hazamoto (Druce 1875) I92
       |       `--M. t. ogumae AV04
       `--+--M. arion AV04
          |--M. arionides AV04
          `--M. cyanecula [=M. arion cyanecula] AV04

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[AV04] Als, T. D., R. Vila, N. P. Kandul, D. R. Nash, S.-H. Yen, Y.-F. Hsu, A. A. Mignault, J. J. Boomsma & N. E. Pierce. 2004. The evolution of alternative parasitic life histories in large blue butterflies. Nature 432: 386-390.

[I92] Iwahashi, J. (ed.) 1992. Reddo Deeta Animaruzu: a pictorial of Japanese fauna facing extinction. JICC: Tokyo.