Pyrgini
Encyclopedia
The Pyrgini are a tribe
in the skipper butterfly subfamily Pyrginae. Formerly, when only 4 tribes of Pyrginae were recognized, the Pyrgini contained the largest number of genera
among these. But this overly wide delimitation has since turned out to be paraphyletic.
One of the traditional Pyrginae tribes, the Eudamini, had to be raised to subfamily rank as Eudaminae. Some genera now in the Eudaminae were placed in ther Pyrgini in earlier times. In addition, a number of additional tribes – Achlyodidini
, Carcharodini
and Erynnini
– are now usually recognized again. These are close relatives of the Pyrgini sensu stricto, and may just as well be included in them as they used to be: together they do still form a monophyletic group. Most authors prefer to keep them separate however, as each is an apomorphic and biogeographically distinct lineage of the Pyrgini sensu lato. Of these newly-recognized tribes, the Achlyodidini are closest to the Pyrgini, but conspicuously differ from the latter in their unusually-shaped wings.
Tribe (biology)
In biology, a tribe is a taxonomic rank between family and genus. It is sometimes subdivided into subtribes.Some examples include the tribes: Canini, Acalypheae, Hominini, Bombini, and Antidesmeae.-See also:* Biological classification* Rank...
in the skipper butterfly subfamily Pyrginae. Formerly, when only 4 tribes of Pyrginae were recognized, the Pyrgini contained the largest number of genera
Genera
Genera is a commercial operating system and development environment for Lisp machines developed by Symbolics. It is essentially a fork of an earlier operating system originating on the MIT AI Lab's Lisp machines which Symbolics had used in common with LMI and Texas Instruments...
among these. But this overly wide delimitation has since turned out to be paraphyletic.
One of the traditional Pyrginae tribes, the Eudamini, had to be raised to subfamily rank as Eudaminae. Some genera now in the Eudaminae were placed in ther Pyrgini in earlier times. In addition, a number of additional tribes – Achlyodidini
Achlyodidini
The Achlyodidini are a tribe in the skipper butterfly subfamily Pyrginae. Many species of them are notable for their gaudy colors and the unusually-shaped wings, which look as if the forewing tips have been squarely cut off...
, Carcharodini
Carcharodini
The Carcharodini are a tribe in the skipper butterfly subfamily Pyrginae. They are a very diverse but quite plesiomorphic and inconspicuous group distributed throughout the Tropics....
and Erynnini
Erynnini
The Erynnini are a tribe in the skipper butterfly subfamily Pyrginae. They are a moderately diverse but quite plesiomorphic and inconspicuous group, and except for the Holarctic species of the type genus Erynnis occur only in the Neotropics....
– are now usually recognized again. These are close relatives of the Pyrgini sensu stricto, and may just as well be included in them as they used to be: together they do still form a monophyletic group. Most authors prefer to keep them separate however, as each is an apomorphic and biogeographically distinct lineage of the Pyrgini sensu lato. Of these newly-recognized tribes, the Achlyodidini are closest to the Pyrgini, but conspicuously differ from the latter in their unusually-shaped wings.