Keys to butterfly description terms

[Silverstreak]

Adding to the keys:

















Courtesy of Wikipedia


Cheers!

[Common Mime]

Great job, Sunny!

[Peacock Royal]

Wow, very clear and useful. Thanks Sunny.

[butterfly_effect]

A great reference for everyone to refer to when describing butterflies! Fantastic consolidation of information.

[Ichoker]

Thanks all for the superb info. still some confusion lingers. I've noticed in Sunny's post that the veins 8 and 9 are missing. why's that? see this also http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fichier...s_venation.png

[Silverstreak]

Hi ,

Most venation diagram depicts only the main veins, as Vein 8 and 9 are considered as branches of vein 7 , and also not all species has vein 8 &9 .

There are great variation on the present or absent of vein 8 and 9 across the sub-families

For Hesperiidae all veins on both wings are unbranched and run straight to the costal or distal margin.

For Nymphalidae forewing vein 8 & 9 are present .

whilst in the Lycaenidae's forewing some are with either vein 8 and 9 missing .

[Ichoker]

I've understood that much. and also that wing venation plays a major role in lepidoptera systematics. What I haven't got yet is how do you decide that the vein next to 7 is not 8 and the next not 9. what is the criteria for numbering the veins. thanks