''Microtia'' is a

monophyletic In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic gro ...

genus of butterflies from southern United States and

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

in the family

Nymphalidae The Nymphalidae are the largest family of butterflies, with more than 6,000 species distributed throughout most of the world. Belonging to the superfamily Papilionoidea, they are usually medium-sized to large butterflies. Most species have a red ...

. It contains the single species ''Microtia elva'', the elf. Larvae of this species feed on ''

Tetramerium Tetramerium is a genus of plants belonging to the family Acanthaceae. It is found mainly in the Americas, especially in tropical dry forests. Christian Gottfried Daniel Nees von Esenbeck Christian Gottfried Daniel Nees von Esenbeck (14 Februa ...

'' and other species in the family

Acanthaceae Acanthaceae is a family (the acanthus family) of dicotyledonous flowering plants containing almost 250 genera and about 2500 species. Most are tropical herbs, shrubs, or twining vines; some are epiphytes. Only a few species are distributed in te ...

Subspecies

*''M. e. elva'' (Guatemala, Nicaragua) *''M. e. horni'' Rebel, 1906 (Mexico, Oaxaca)

References

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q13846234, from2=Q11703720 Melitaeini Monotypic butterfly genera Taxa named by Henry Walter Bates