''Polyommatus'' is a
genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...
of
butterflies in the family
Lycaenidae
Lycaenidae is the second-largest family of butterflies (behind Nymphalidae, brush-footed butterflies), with over 6,000 species worldwide, whose members are also called gossamer-winged butterflies. They constitute about 30% of the known butterf ...
.
Its
species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriat ...
are found in the
Palearctic realm
The Palearctic or Palaearctic is the largest of the eight biogeographic realms of the Earth. It stretches across all of Eurasia north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa.
The realm consists of several bioregions: the Euro-Si ...
.
Taxonomy
Recent molecular studies have demonstrated that ''
Cyaniris
''Cyaniris'' is a genus of butterflies in the family Lycaenidae
Lycaenidae is the second-largest family of butterflies (behind Nymphalidae, brush-footed butterflies), with over 6,000 species worldwide, whose members are also called gossamer ...
'', ''
Lysandra'', and ''
Neolysandra'' are different genera from ''Polyommatus'', where they had been included, sometimes as subgenera.
Some authors still recognize other subgenera, such as ''Agrodiaetus'', ''Bryna'', ''Meleageria'', and ''Plebicula''.
List of species
References
* (2012): Establishing criteria for higher-level classification using molecular data: the systematics of ''Polyommatus'' blue butterflies (Lepidoptera, Lycaenidae). ''
Cladistics
Cladistics (; ) is an approach to biological classification in which organisms are categorized in groups (" clades") based on hypotheses of most recent common ancestry. The evidence for hypothesized relationships is typically shared derived cha ...
''. 10.1111/j.1096-0031.2012.00421.x
* (2010): "How common are dot-like distributions? Taxonomical oversplitting in western European ''Agrodiaetus'' (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae) revealed by chromosomal and molecular markers. ''
Biological Journal of the Linnean Society'' 101:130-154 (2010)
abstract
Further reading
*French Wikipedia has more information about this genus at
:fr: Polyommatus
External links
Images representing ''Polyommatus'' at
Consortium for the Barcode of Life
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1084480
Lycaenidae genera
Taxa named by Pierre André Latreille