Danainae is a subfamily of the family Nymphalidae, the brush-footed butterflies. The group may be referred to as the Danaids (reflecting their previous rank as a family) or milkweed butterflies, as they often lay their eggs on various milkweeds on which their larvae (caterpillars) feed, though it also encompasses the clearwing butterflies (Ithomiini), and the Tellervini. The fossil milkweed butterfly ' is known from the Oligocene or Miocene of Brazil from the Tremembé Formation; it provides evidence that the present milkweed butterflies originated more than 20–30 million years ago.
Characteristics
Larvae have thoracic tubercles and use plants within the family Apocynaceae that often contain latex-like compounds in the stem as hosts. Adults are aposematic (brightly colored as a warning signal).
Threats
Numerous wasps and tachinid flies are parasitoids of milkweed butterfly caterpillars.
The loss of food plants, such as various milkweed species, extensive use of insecticides and modification of landscapes in the United States and Canada, and increased deforestation in Mexico threaten the migratory monarch butterfly.
<gallery class="center" widths=250 mode="nolines" noborder="no" caption="Representatives of Danaid tribes">
File:Danaus chrysippus male 2 by kadavoor.jpg|Danaus chrysippus, male with anal "hairs"; Danaini
File:Methona themisto (borboleta-do-manacá).jpg|Methona themisto; Ithomiini
File:Tellervo zoilus 149825542.jpg|Tellervo zoilus; Tellervini
</gallery>
References
Further reading
- Ackery, P. R. & Vane-Wright, R. I. 1984. Milkweed butterflies, their cladistics and biology, being an account of the natural history of the Danainae, a subfamily of the Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae. ix+425 pp. London.
External links
- "Danainae Boisduval, [1833]" at Markku Savela's Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms