Abstract
Characters of external genitalia are considered as one of the important criteria to understand the taxonomy of insects. In the present study, various taxonomic characters of the male and female external genitalia and wing venation of six species under the genus Junonia Hübner viz., orythia (Linnaeus, 1758), iphita (Cramer, [1779]), almana (Linnaeus, 1758), lemonias (Linnaeus, 1758), hierta (Fabricius, 1798), atlites (Linnaeus, 1763), have been described and illustrated in detail. Besides, brief diagnoses and identification keys based on external genitalia, morphological variations and taxonomic remarks have been given for all taxa.
Highlights
Genus Junonia Hübner, [1819] is a speciose genus, of the butterfly family Nymphalidae, with extant members predominantly of tropical affinity
A perusal of literature reveals that no consolidated account is available on wing venation and genitalia of Junonia Hübner (Kumar et al 2007)
There is considerable geographic variation within Junonia species, and possible on-going inter-specific hybridization suggests that Junonia may be a ring species, making this a very difficult group to define taxonomically (Borchers & Marcus 2014)
Summary
Genus Junonia Hübner, [1819] is a speciose genus, of the butterfly family Nymphalidae, with extant members predominantly of tropical affinity. The genus contains 33 species that are distributed throughout all major biogeographical regions of the world, except the Palaearctic (Kodandaramaiah & Wahlberg 2007)., The true number of species and their relationships, has been an on-going debate in the scientific community for the last 100 years (Turner & Parnell 1985; Borchers & Marcus 2014). A perusal of literature reveals that no consolidated account is available on wing venation and genitalia of Junonia Hübner (Kumar et al 2007). To this date, the taxonomy of Junonia is somewhat unstable (Kodandaramaiah & Wahlberg 2007; Neild 2008; Brévignon 2009; Kodandaramaiah 2009).
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