Cynthia

[Bill Yule]

Hi all.
   I think Chris brings up a good point: If two entities can hybridize in
the wild is that in itself sufficient to consider them congeneric?
  I'm not a taxonomist or an entomologist but I can't help but wonder if two
butterflies can mate and produce fertile offspring and you can still
consider them affiliated with different genera what exactly then does that
taxon (genus) mean?

                                            Bill Yule
----- Original Message -----
From: "Chris J. Durden" <drdn at mail.utexas.edu>
To: <leps-l at lists.yale.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, November 06, 2002 12:40 PM
Subject: Re: Cynthia


> To me the occurrence of occasional wild hybrids between *V. atalanta* and
> *C. annabella* suggests that they should be considered congeneric and that
> *Cynthia* should be ranked as a weak subgenus of *Vanessa*.
> ................Chris Durden
>
> At 11:57 AM 11/4/2002 -0800, you wrote:
> >Hi Bill et al.,
> >
> >Cynthia resurrected by W. D. Field (1971, Smithsonian Contrib. Zool. 84)
> >for
> >cardui, kershawi, virginiensis, altissima, braziliensis, terpsichore,
> >myrinna, annabella, carye
> >
> >Vanessa ss. is for atalanta, tameamea, samani, indica, dejeanii
> >
> >Bassaris ss. for itea and gonerilla
> >
> >Lately, the monophyly of Vanessa + Cynthia + Bassaris  has been
> >supported by molecular and morphological cladistic analysis by Nylin et
> >al (2001, Biol. J. Linn Soc. 132:441-468), although they do not have an
> >opinion on whether the clade should be one genus or three.
> >
> >Cheers,
> >
> >Andy Brower
>
>
>
>
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