Danainae
Niklas Wahlberg and Andrew V. Z. Brower
This tree diagram shows the relationships between several groups of organisms.
The root of the current tree connects the organisms featured in this tree to their containing group and the rest of the Tree of Life. The basal branching point in the tree represents the ancestor of the other groups in the tree. This ancestor diversified over time into several descendent subgroups, which are represented as internal nodes and terminal taxa to the right.
You can click on the root to travel down the Tree of Life all the way to the root of all Life, and you can click on the names of descendent subgroups to travel up the Tree of Life all the way to individual species.
For more information on ToL tree formatting, please see Interpreting the Tree or Classification. To learn more about phylogenetic trees, please visit our Phylogenetic Biology pages.
close boxDiscussion of Phylogenetic Relationships
These groups have traditionally been united by similarities of hostplant use–basal members of each group are associated with Asclepiadaceae and/or Apocynaceae (Ackery 1988). Molecular evidence supporting their close relationship has been found by Brower (2000), and morphological synapomorphies by Freitas and Brown (2004).
References
Ackery PR. 1988. Hostplants and classification: a review of nymphalid butterflies. Biol. J. Linn. Soc. 33: 95-203.
Brower AVZ. 2000. Phylogenetic relationships among the Nymphalidae (Lepidoptera) inferred from partial sequences of the wingless gene. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 267: 1201-1211.
Freitas AVL, and Brown KSJ. 2004. Phylogeny of the Nymphalidae (Lepidoptera). Systematic Biology 53: 363-383.
Title Illustrations

| Scientific Name | Ideopsis similis |
|---|---|
| Location | Taiwan |
| Acknowledgements |
This image is
licensed under the Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Creative Commons License. source: flickr: IMG_7755al1 |
| Specimen Condition | Live Specimen |
| Copyright | © 2006 leemt2 |
| Scientific Name | Tellervo zoilus |
|---|---|
| Location | Queensland, Australia |
| Specimen Condition | Dead Specimen |
| Identified By | Darrell Kemp |
| Copyright |
© Niklas Wahlberg
|
| Scientific Name | Greta oto |
|---|---|
| Location | Bedford Butterfly Park |
| Acknowledgements |
This image is
licensed under the Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Creative Commons License. source: flickr: Glass Wing |
| Specimen Condition | Live Specimen |
| Copyright | © 2006 Bill Hails |
About This Page
Niklas Wahlberg
Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, USA
Correspondence regarding this page should be directed to Niklas Wahlberg at and Andrew V. Z. Brower at
Page copyright © 2006 Niklas Wahlberg and
- First online 25 September 2006
- Content changed 09 December 2006
Citing this page:
Wahlberg, Niklas and Brower, Andrew V. Z. 2006. Danainae . Version 09 December 2006 (under construction). http://tolweb.org/Danainae/12187/2006.12.09 in The Tree of Life Web Project, http://tolweb.org/







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