These are typically fairly large butterfies, such as the admirals, tortoiseshells and fritillaries, which have very colourful upperparts. However, the underwings are dull and often look like dead leaves, which helps to conceal stationary or hibernating insects.
The front two legs are small, so these butterflies are effectively four-legged. The caterpillars are hairy or spiky, and the chrysalids have shiny spots.
Several species are attracted to Buddleia, the butterfly plant.
The classification shown here follows most modern taxonomists in relegating the following well known butterfly families to the status of subfamilies of the Nymphalidae:
The relationships of major lineages in Nymphalidae have been unclear for a long period, but recent work by the NSG, Andrew Brower and André Freitas are resolving these issues based on both molecular and morphological data.
The monophyly of Nymphalidae has been the subject of debate, which was not addressed in the previous studies.
Through a collaboration with four other labs, the NSG has been able to test the monophyly of Nymphalidae with a large dataset consisting of morphological data and sequences from three genes for a sample of butterflies and skippers.
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