''Nessaea'' is a genus of

nymphalid 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 ...

butterflies found in the

Neotropical realm The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropical terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperate zone. Definition In bioge ...

. Unlike virtually all other butterflies with blue coloration, the blue colors in this genus are due to

pigment A pigment is a colored material that is completely or nearly insoluble in water. In contrast, dyes are typically soluble, at least at some stage in their use. Generally dyes are often organic compounds whereas pigments are often inorganic compo ...

ation terobilin (biliverdin IXγ)ref>Doug Taron
"It's all in the structure"
''Gossamer Tapestry'', Retrieved January 25, 2017 rather than

iridescence Iridescence (also known as goniochromism) is the phenomenon of certain surfaces that appear to gradually change color as the angle of view or the angle of illumination changes. Examples of iridescence include soap bubbles, feathers, butterfl ...

(e.g., ''

Morpho The morpho butterflies comprise many species of Neotropical butterfly under the genus ''Morpho''. This genus includes more than 29 accepted species and 147 accepted subspecies, found mostly in South America, Mexico, and Central America. ''Morph ...

'' species).

Species

Accepted species: *'' Nessaea aglaura'' Doubleday 848/small> – common olivewing, northern nessaea or Aglaura olivewing *'' Nessaea ecuadorensis'' Talbot 1932 *'' Nessaea batesii'' C. & R. Felder 1860 – Bates olivewing *''

Nessaea magniplaga ''Nessaea'' is a genus of nymphalid butterflies found in the Neotropical realm. Unlike virtually all other butterflies with blue coloration, the blue colors in this genus are due to pigmentation terobilin (biliverdin IXγ)ref>Doug Taron"It's all ...

'' Röber 1928 *'' Nessaea hewitsonii'' C. & R. Felder 1859 – Hewitson's olivewing *'' Nessaea obrinus''

Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...

1758 Events January–March * January 1 – Swedish biologist Carl Linnaeus (Carl von Linné) publishes in Stockholm the first volume (''Animalia'') of the 10th edition of Systema Naturae, 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae'', the sta ...

– obrina olivewing *''

Nessaea faventia ''Nessaea'' is a genus of nymphalid butterflies found in the Neotropical realm. Unlike virtually all other butterflies with blue coloration, the blue colors in this genus are due to pigmentation terobilin (biliverdin IXγ)ref>Doug Taron"It's all ...

'' Fruhstorfer 1910 *''

Nessaea latifascia ''Nessaea'' is a genus of nymphalid butterflies found in the Neotropical realm. Unlike virtually all other butterflies with blue coloration, the blue colors in this genus are due to pigmentation terobilin (biliverdin IXγ)ref>Doug Taron"It's all ...

'' Röber 1928 *'' Nessaea romani'' Bryk 1953 *'' Nessaea regina'' Salvin 1869 *'' Nessaea thalia'' Bargmann 1928 Unaccepted species: *'' Nessaea margaretha'' Krüger 1933 -

unavailable name In zoological nomenclature, an unavailable name is a name that does not conform to the rules of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature and that therefore is not available for use as a valid name for a taxon. Such a name does not fulfil th ...

and

infrasubspecific name In biological classification, taxonomic rank is the relative level of a group of organisms (a taxon) in an ancestral or hereditary hierarchy. A common system consists of species, genus, family, order, class, phylum, kingdom, domain. While ...

*'' Nessaea ancaeus''

1767 -

junior subjective synonym The Botanical and Zoological Codes of nomenclature treat the concept of synonymy differently. * In botanical nomenclature, a synonym is a scientific name that applies to a taxon that (now) goes by a different scientific name. For example, Linn ...

*'' Nessaea lesoudieri'' Le Moult 1933 - junior subjective synonym *'' Nessaea coniuncta'' Krüger 1933 - unavailable name and infrasubspecific name

Images

Image:Nessaeanag.jpg, ''Nessaea aglaura'' Image:Nessaea batesii MHNT.jpg, ''Nessaea batesii'' males Image:Nessaeaof.jpg, ''Nessaea obrinus'' female - upperside Image:Nessaeaom.jpg, ''Nessaea obrinus'' male - upperside Image:Nessaeaou.jpg, ''Nessaea obrinus'' - underside Obrinus olivewing (Nessaea obrinus faventia).JPG, Obrinus olivewing (''N. obrinus faventia'', male,

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

References

*Vane-Wright, R.I. 1979. The coloration, identification and phylogeny of ''Nessaea'' butterflies (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae). ''Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History), Entomology'', 38: 27–56.

External links

*
Images representing ''Nessaea''
at Encyclopedia of Life
"''Nessaea''_Hübner,_[1819]"
at_Markku_Savela's_''Lepidoptera_and_Some_Other_Life_Forms'' Biblidinae.html" ;"title="819]"">"''Nessaea'' Hübner, [1819]"
at Markku Savela's ''Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms'' Biblidinae">819]"">"''Nessaea'' Hübner, [1819]"
at Markku Savela's ''Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms'' Biblidinae Nymphalidae of South America Taxa named by Jacob Hübner Nymphalidae genera {{Biblidinae-stub