Neotropical Butterflies of the Genus Anartia: Systematics, Life Histories and General Biology (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae)

Butterflies of the genus Anartia Hiibner are among the most common and conspicuous diurnal Lepidoptera encountered in the New World tropics. While their abundance and ease of capture have made them popular subjects for research in various aspects of lepidopteran biology, the genus has never been thoroughly reviewed or revised. Two of the authors, (R.E.S. and A.A.) have been conducting genetic, behavioral and ecological experiments on members of this genus for four years, and we feel it is both an opportunity and a necessity to condense the scattered published information with some of our own observations and results. Our experimental findings will be published separately. As treated here, Anartia consists of five species (Figure 1) in three well-defined groups (Godman and Salvin, 1882).