Junonia

This article is about the butterfly. For the Roman colony, see Colonia Junonia. For the sea snail, see Scaphella junonia.

Junonia
Junonia villida
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Nymphalidae
Subfamily:	Nymphalinae
Tribe:	Junoniini
Genus:	Junonia Hübner, [1819]
Type species
Junonia evarete (Cramer, 1779)
Species
about 30–35, see text
Synonyms
Alcyoneis Hübner, [1819] Aresta Billberg, 1820 Kamilla Collins & Larsen, 1991

Junonia is a genus of nymphalid butterflies, described by Jacob Hübner in 1819. They are commonly known as buckeyes, pansies, or commodores. This genus flies on every continent except Antarctica. The genus contains about 30–35 species.

Description

Medium-size to large (wingspan 40–110 mm) butterflies. The ground colour is brown or grey suffused blue. Spots on the wings are orange, blue or pink spots and sometimes large. Many of the species can occur in several colour forms. The head is of moderate size with smooth, prominent eyes. The palpi are rather long, sharply pointed, ascending, generally convergent, and scaly, sometimes more or less hairy. The antennae are of moderate length, generally with a rather short, abruptly formed club. The thorax is robust, ovate, rather sparingly clothed with hairs. The wing characters are: wings large, broad, variable in outline. Fore-wing: costa more or less arched, sometimes very strongly so; apical portion more or less produced, sometimes very prominent, with a strong projection on hind-margin at extremity of first discoidal nervule; hind-margin always more or less dentate and emarginate, with, in many species, a considerable projection at extremity of third median nervule; inner-margin nearly straight, or slightly emarginate about centre; discoidal cell generally closed by a slender nervule. Hind-wing: costa strongly arched at base, and more or less so throughout; hind-margin always more or less escalloped, sometimes simply rounded (without any marked projections), sometimes with a more or less elongate production of anal angle, and occasionally with a longer or shorter projection of hind-margin at extremity of first median nervule; inner-margins deeply grooved and entirely covering under-surface of abdomen; discoidal cell generally open. The abdomen short, compressed, rather slender.

The larva is rather stout, almost of equal thickness throughout, armed with strong branched spines; sometimes with two short, similar spines on head. The pupa is moderately angulated, with raised tubercles on the back, head slightly bifid. Sometimes hardly angulated, the anterior portions more rounded.

Biology

Junonia are good fliers. The larvae feed on a wide variety of plants, among others Labiatae, Acanthaceae, Amaranthaceae, Scrophulariaceae, Onagraceae, Leguminosae, Balsaminaceae, Gramineae, Melastomataceae, Plantaginaceae, Aucubaceae, Compositae.

Taxonomy

The leaf butterflies J. ansorgei and J. cymodoce (both from Africa) have traditionally been included in Kallima, but this genus is now usually limited to Asian species. Instead of being placed in Junonia, the two are sometimes awarded their own genus, Kamilla. The leaf butterfly J. tugela is sometimes included in Precis instead of Junonia.

The species in Junonia:

• Junonia adulatrix (Fruhstorfer, 1903)
• Junonia africana (Richelmann, 1913)
• Junonia almana (Linnaeus, 1758) – Peacock pansy
• Junonia ansorgei (Rothschild, 1899) – Ansorge's leaf butterfly
• Junonia artaxia Hewitson, 1864 – Commodore
• Junonia atlites (Linnaeus, 1763) – Grey pansy or gray pansy
• Junonia chorimene (Guérin-Méneville, [1844]) – Golden pansy
• Junonia coenia Hübner, [1822] – (Common) buckeye
• Junonia cytora Doubleday, 1847 (formerly Salamis cytora) – Western blue beauty
• Junonia cymodoce (Cramer, [1777]) – Western leaf, blue leaf butterfly
• Junonia erigone (Cramer, [1775]) – Northern argus
• Junonia evarete (Cramer, [1779]) – Mangrove buckeye, smokey buckeye, or West Indian buckeye
• Junonia genoveva (Cramer, [1780]) – Mangrove buckeye or tropical buckeye
• Junonia goudotii (Boisduval, 1833)
• Junonia gregorii Butler, [1896] – Gregori’s brown pansy
• Junonia hadrope Doubleday, [1847] – Volta pansy
• Junonia hedonia (Linnaeus, 1764) – Brown pansy
• Junonia hierta (Fabricius, 1798) – Yellow pansy
• Junonia intermedia (C. & R. Felder, [1867])
• Junonia iphita (Cramer, [1779]) – Chocolate pansy
• Junonia lemonias (Linnaeus, 1758) – Lemon pansy
• Junonia natalica (Felder, 1860) – Natal pansy
• Junonia oenone (Linnaeus, 1758) – Dark blue pansy
• Junonia orithya (Linnaeus, 1758) – Eyed pansy or blue pansy
• Junonia rhadama (Boisduval, 1833) – Brilliant blue
• Junonia schmiedeli (Fiedler, 1920)
• Junonia sophia (Fabricius, 1793) – Little commodore
• Junonia stygia (Aurivillius, 1894) – Brown pansy or dark pansy
• Junonia terea (Druce, 1773) – Soldier commodore or soldier pansy
• Junonia timorensis Wallace, 1869
• Junonia touhilimasa Vuillot, 1892 – Naval pansy
• Junonia tugela (Trimen, 1879) – African leaf butterfly (moved to Precis tugela)
• Junonia vestina C. & R. Felder, [1867] – Andean buckeye
• Junonia villida (Fabricius, 1787) – Meadow argus
• Junonia westermanni Westwood, 1870 – Blue spot pansy

External links

• Junonia at funet.fi
• Seitz, A. Die Gross-Schmetterlinge der Erde 13: Die Afrikanischen Tagfalter. Plate XIII 52 et prae.