''Cirrochroa'', commonly called yeomen, is a genus of

butterflies Butterflies are winged insects from the lepidopteran superfamily Papilionoidea, characterized by large, often brightly coloured wings that often fold together when at rest, and a conspicuous, fluttering flight. The oldest butterfly fossi ...

of the

subfamily In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end botanical subfamily names with "-oideae", and zo ...

Heliconiinae The Heliconiinae, commonly called heliconians or longwings, are a subfamily of the brush-footed butterflies (family (biology), family Nymphalidae). They can be divided into 45–50 genera and were sometimes treated as a separate family Heliconi ...

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 ha ...

found in

southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...

. The genus ranges from

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...

Description

Fairly large, broad-winged butterflies. The outer edges of the wings are wavy. The ground colour of the upper side is usually brown-orange, but can also be brown or blue. The wingtips are usually darker, and often have one or more thin brown zigzag lines along the outer edge and a series of brown spots on the hindwing. The underside of the wings is usually light brownish at the root, darker in the outer half.''Cirrochroa'' is very nearly allied to '' Cynthia''; but one can immediately recognize them through the delicate antennae, which are only slightly thickened at the end, and which bear no distinctly defined club. Further distinguishing characters are to be found in the strongly swollen palpi, the last joint of which is very finely pointed, the naked eyes and the simple precostal vein, which branches from behind the base of the subcostal, and which is slightly bent outwards. The neuration of ''Cirrochroa'' does not differ essentially from that of ''Cynthia'' and on this account is sharply divided from '' Cupha'', the only other ''Argynnis''-Genus, which possesses clubless antennae.

Biology

These butterflies prefer to live in forest edges up to 1000 meters above sea level. At least one of the species has larvae that live on the plant genus '' Hydnocarpus'' ( ''

Achariaceae Achariaceae is a family of flowering plants consisting of 31 genera and about 155 species of tropical herbs, shrubs, and trees. The APG IV system has greatly expanded the scope of the family by including many genera previously classified in Flac ...

'' ). The butterflies are fast fliers, and relatively shy. They like to come down to the ground to soak up moisture.

Species

In alphabetical order:"''Cirrochroa'' Doubleday, [1847]"
at Markku Savela's ''Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms'' * ''Cirrochroa aoris">847]"">"''Cirrochroa'' Doubleday, [1847]"
at Markku Savela's ''Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms'' * ''Cirrochroa aoris'' Doubleday, 1847 – large yeoman * ''Cirrochroa clagia'' (Godart, 1824) * ''Cirrochroa emalea'' (Guérin-Méneville, 1843) – Malay yeoman * ''Cirrochroa eremita'' Tsukada, 1985 * ''Cirrochroa imperatrix'' Grose-Smith, 1894 * '' Cirrochroa malaya'' C. & R. Felder, 1860 * '' Cirrochroa menones'' Semper, 1888 * '' Cirrochroa niassica'' Honrath, 1892 * '' Cirrochroa nicobarica'' Wood-Mason, 1881 * '' Cirrochroa orissa'' C. & R. Felder, 1860 – banded yeoman * '' Cirrochroa recondita'' Roos, 1996 * '' Cirrochroa regina'' C. & R. Felder, 1867 * '' Cirrochroa satellita'' Butler, 1869 * '' Cirrochroa semiramis'' C. & R. Felder, 1867 * '' Cirrochroa surya'' Moore, 1879 – little yeoman * ''

Cirrochroa thais ''Cirrochroa thais'', also known as the Tamil yeoman, is a species of nymphalid butterfly found in forested areas of tropical Sri Lanka and India. It is the state insect of Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and uni ...

'' (Fabricius, 1787) – Tamil yeoman * '' Cirrochroa tyche'' C. & R. Felder, 1861 – common yeoman * '' Cirrochroa thule'' C. & R. Felder, 1860

References

External links

Images representing ''Cirrochroa''
at EOL
Images representing ''Cirrochroa''
at

Consortium for the Barcode of Life The Consortium for the Barcode of Life (CBOL) was an international initiative dedicated to supporting the development of DNA barcoding as a global standard for species identification. CBOL's Secretariat Office is hosted by the National Museum of ...

Vagrantini Nymphalidae genera Taxa named by Edward Doubleday {{Heliconiinae-stub