Acraea | |
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Adult male fiery acraea (A. acrita) | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Arthropoda |
Class: | Insecta |
Order: | Lepidoptera |
Family: | Nymphalidae |
Tribe: | Acraeini |
Genus: | Acraea Fabricius, 1807 |
Type species | |
Papilio horta (Linnaeus, 1764)
| |
Species | |
Presently about 220, see text | |
Synonyms | |
[1] |
Acraea is a genus of brush-footed butterflies (family Nymphalidae) of the subfamily Heliconiinae. It seems to be highly paraphyletic and has long been used as a "wastebin taxon" to unite about 220 species of anatomically conservative Acraeini. Some phylogenetic studies show that the genus Acraea is monophyletic if Bematistes and Neotropical Actinote are included (see Pierre & Bernaud, 2009). Most species assembled here are restricted to the Afrotropical realm, but some are found in India, Southeast Asia, and Australia.[2]