Nymphalidae  

These butterflies communicate mainly with their scent and their colors. Males attract mates with scent and display, and females leave a scent mark on plants where they have laid eggs.

In most species of Brushfoots, individuals only live for a year or a little more (not more than two winters). A few cold climate species may survive through two winters as larvae or pupae, but the adults only survive for a few weeks. Some temperate climate adults live the longest of any adult butterflies, surviving for 6 months or more.

View Nymphalidae Tree

The pages under Nymphalidae on the Tree of Life Web site are being worked on at this moment. Relationships are shown for the most part down to the level of genera, but there is still very little other information on the pages. The pages will be continuously updated, so please check back often.

The diversity in form and life style has meant that the phylogenetic relationships of nymphalids have been contentious. This in turn has meant that there has been no consensus on the classification of the group, with some authors splitting the family into up to 9 different families! The lack of a good phylogenetic hypothesis has also meant that the evolutionary history of the group has been shrouded in mystery. Recent molecular and morphological work is bringing light to the question of how different species and groups of species are related to each other. The tree shown above is the best hypothesis of subfamilial relationships based on as yet unpublished combined analyses of morphological and molecular data.

 Many groups within Nymphalidae are currently under investigation, and we have endeavored to provide current hypotheses of relationships for each group. Where these are lacking, lists of taxa down to the species level are provided, in the hope that this will stimulate further research.

The family Nymphalidae is the most speciose family of butterflies with about 6000 described species so far. The family contains many well-known species, such as the monarch, the Painted Lady, the buckeye, the fritillaries, checkerspots and the electric blue morphos. Indeed, nymphalids are in many places the most visible members of the local butterfly fauna. Due to their visibility and ease of study in the field and lab, many species of nymphalids have been used as model systems to understand the complexity of life on this planet.