The Aphnaeinae are a subfamily of butterflies in the family Lycaenidae.

Aphnaeinae
Club silverline, Cigaritis syama
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Lycaenidae
Subfamily: Aphnaeinae
Distant, 1884

Systematics

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Until recently, this taxon used to be considered a tribe (called Aphnaeini) within the subfamily Theclinae.

History

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The Aphnaeinae is known as a Afrotropical and Oriental species that comes from a subfamily of 278 described species. What makes them distinct is that they have ants that work mutualistic with this organism for the reason that ants defend the larvae from predators and the larvae give production of high nutrients to the ants.  What makes Aphnaeinae to stand out among the Lycaenidae is [1]“for exhibiting considerable variability in feeding strategies within a single subfamily, especially considering the relatively small size of the group” (Boyle et al., 2015).

Genera

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Modern authors recognize 17 genera:[1]

References

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  1. ^ a b Boyle, J.H., Kaliszewska, Z.A., Espeland, M., Suderman, T.R., Fleming, J., Heath, A., & Pierce, N.E., 2015. Phylogeny of the Aphnaeinae: myrmecophilous African butterflies with carnivorous and herbivorous life histories. Systematic entomology 40(1): 169–182.