Junonia grisea, also known as the gray buckeye, grey buckeye, or Western buckeye, is a species in the butterfly family Nymphalidae. It is found in North America, west of the Rocky Mountains. Like the common buckeye, the gray buckeye is a brown butterfly with eyespots on its wings that distract predators from its body.[1]

Junonia grisea
Junonia grisea, gray buckeye, California
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Nymphalidae
Subfamily: Nymphalinae
Tribe: Junoniini
Genus: Junonia
Species:
J. grisea
Binomial name
Junonia grisea
Austin & Emmel, 1998

Junonia grisea was formerly considered a subspecies of the common buckeye, Junonia coenia, called Junonia coenia grisea. The gray buckeye's status as a separate species was discovered in 2018 by Dr. Jeffrey Marcus, an entomologist at the University of Manitoba, and Melanie Lalonde, a graduate student. As a result, Junonia grisea is now found mainly west of the Rocky Mountains.[1][2][3]

References edit

  1. ^ a b Rutkowski, Chris (November 21, 2018). "First new butterfly species identified since 2016". Phys.org. Retrieved April 2, 2022.
  2. ^ Lalonde, Melanie M.L.; Marcus, Jeffrey M. (2019). "Getting western: biogeographical analysis of morphological variation, mitochondrial haplotypes and nuclear markers reveals cryptic species and hybrid zones in the Junonia butterflies of the American southwest and Mexico". Systematic Entomology. 44 (3): 465–489. Bibcode:2019SysEn..44..465L. doi:10.1111/syen.12335. S2CID 91932338.
  3. ^ Cong, Qian; Zhang, Jing; Shen, Jinhui; Cao, Xiaolong; et al. (2020). "Speciation in North American Junonia from a genomic perspective". Systematic Entomology. 45 (4): 803–837. Bibcode:2020SysEn..45..803C. doi:10.1111/syen.12428. PMC 8570557. PMID 34744257.

Further reading edit