Lycaenidae

[lī′sēn·ə‚dē]

(invertebrate zoology)

A family of heteroneuran lepidopteran insects in the superfamily Papilionoidea including blue, gossamer, hairstreak, copper, and metalmark butterflies.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Lycaenidae

a family of diurnal butterflies. Their wing-spread is 2 to 4 cm. In the male the wings are light blue, dark blue, green, or orange-red, sometimes with considerable glitter; the females’ wings are brown. Occasionally the wings are the same in both sexes. Underneath, the wings are grayish with rows of small eyelike spots. There are more than 2,500 species, of which up to 500 are found in the moderate latitudes of the northern hemisphere. Some 60 species are known in the European part of the USSR. The caterpillars feed on broad-leaved trees (Thecla), grassy Polygonaceae (Chrysophanus), or legumes (various Lycaenidae). In some species the caterpillars are carnivores, eating aphids and scale insects. Lycaenidae do not cause great damage to crops.

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References in periodicals archive

--., 1981.- The "False Head" hypothesis: predation and wing pattern variation of Lycaenid butterflies.

Nota sobre los habitos territoriales de laothus gibberosa hewitson, adelotypa densemaculata hewitson y pseudotinea vulcanicus callaghan & salazar en residuos de bosques fragmentados (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae, Riodinidae)

Host specificity revisited: new data on Myrraica host ants of the lycaenid butterfly Maculinea rebeli.

Considering local adaptation in issues of lepidopteran conservation--a review and recommendations

Tentacles and Newcomer gland, the myrmecophilous structures characteristic of the lycaenid larvae could be seen in the caterpillars.

Is the butterfly Tomares ballus (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae) a potential pest of Lens culinaris (Leguminosae)?

Because of their habitat loss, many lycaenid species are listed as threatened in Red Data Books in many European countries (van Swaay and Warren 1999).

Licenidos (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae) del noroccidente de Turquia con notas sobre su ecologia y estado actual

This lycaenid may be numerous during early October but adult abundance may continue throughout this month until December.

Butterflies of the agricultural experiment station of tropical roots and tubers, and Santa Ana, Camaguey, Cuba: an annotated list

Lycaenid butterflies and plants: is myrmecophily associated with particular hostplant preferences?

Butterflies and plants: a phylogenetic study

Another small Lycaenid butterfly, the Western Pygmy Blue Brephidium exilis, a native of arid south-western North America, has established itself in the Arabian Gulf region, from Northern Oman to Kuwait, apparently over the past 25 years (see, e.g., Pittaway et al.

First UAE and Arabian records of Chilades pandava, the Cycad Cupid butterfly, an introduced oriental species (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae) hosted by the ornamental sago plant Cycas revoluta

Finally we give the remark, that the trait of ventrally red coloured abdomen so typical for some Neotropical eumaeine lycaenid genera (for example Atlides, Eumaeus, Thecloxurina), which most probably advertises toxicity, lacks in Theorema (and also in Eumaeus childrenae).

Notas sobre el genero theorema especialmente en Colombia y la descripcion de una nueva especie de Venezuela (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae: Theclinae)

Plant-herbivore coevolution: lupines and lycaenids. Science 162:671-672.

EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FOR COMPLEX SOURCE-SINK DYNAMICS WITH ALTERNATIVE STATES IN A BUTTERFLY METAPOPULATION

For example, adults of the lycaenid butterfly, Euphilotes enoptes, seldom disperse more than 1 km (Arnold 1983; Peterson 1997), and yet genetic isolation by distance in this species is only evident over distances exceeding 100 km, apparently because stepping-stone gene flow homogenizes allele frequencies over a large spatial scale (Peterson 1995, 1996).

The influence of intraspecific variation in dispersal strategies on the genetic structure of Planthopper populations

Jammed amongst material of "Thecla barajo" and its relatives in the Main Butterfly collection of the Natural History Museum, London (cabinet series 28A, drawer number 68) since almost a century, a large, curious female lycaenid butterfly specimen was curated as an undescribed species by Frederick Goodson (BALINT, 2005a).

Cinco apartados sobre Annamaria Columbia con la descripcion de un nuevo genero (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae: Eumaeini)

Coevolution: Patterns of legume predation by a lycaenid butterfly.

Variation in flowering phenology and its consequences for lupines colonizing Mount St. Helens