NEOTROPICAL BUTTERFLIES OF THE GENUS ANARTIA: 
SYSTEMATICS, LIFE HISTORIES AND GENERAL 
BIOLOGY (LEPIDOPTERA: NYMPHALIDAE) 
By Robert E. Silberglied 1 
Annette Aiello 1 
and 
Gerardo Lamas 2 
INTRODUCTION 
Butterflies of the genus Anartia Htibner 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 lepi- 
dopteran biology, the genus has never been thoroughly reviewed or 
revised. Two of the authors, (R.E.S. and A. A.) have been conduct¬ 
ing 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). 
SYSTEMATICS 
Genus Anartia Hiibner 
Anartia Hiibner, [1819]: 33. 
< Type species, Papilio jatrophae Linnaeus (Scudder, 1875: 111). 
Celaena Doubleday, [1849]: 214. 
Type species, Papilio fatima Fabricius (Hemming, 1941: 425). Invalid and 
unavailable; published in synonymy (ICZN, Art. lid). 
Celoena Boisduval, 1870: 38. 
Type species, Papilio fatima Godart (mon.). Junior subjective synonym. 
Anartia subgenus Anartiella Fruhstorfer, 1907: 112. 
Type species, Vanessa lytrea Godart (mon.). Junior subjective synonym. 
1 Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Box 2072, Balboa, Republica de Panama. 
Present address: Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, Cambridge, 
Mass. 02138 
2 Museo de Historia Natural “Javier Prado,” Universidad Nacional Mayor de San 
Marcos, Av. Arenales 1256, Aptdo. 1109, Lima, Peru. 
Manuscript received by the editor February 26, 1980. 
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