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Mesene
Mesene is a genus in the butterfly family Riodinidae present in the Neotropical realm.
Riodinidae Mesene exhibit many color variations and combinations and vary by geographic region. The males have triangular, pointed, brightly coloured forewings and small ellipsoidal hindwings. In the wing veins the species exhibit great conformity, the second subcostal vein, the upper median vein in the forewing as well as in the hindwing rise before the cell-end. They rest well hidden on the under surface of leaves but fly when disturbed somewhat like geometrids for about 10 to 20 metres always keeping in the middle of the forest roads, in order to drop again into another bush. The larvae are lycaenid like, somewhat like woodlice, fluffily haired; that of M. phareus lives on the extremely poisonous Paullinia pinnata to the leaf of which also the small greenish-yellow pupa is spun.
26 branches of this genus, most-observed first
Cramer's Mesene
speciesMesene phareus
Mesene leucophrys
speciesMesene leucophrys
Mesene monostigma
speciesMesene monostigma
Mesene margaretta
speciesMesene margaretta
Mesene epaphus
speciesMesene epaphus
Mesene pyrippe
speciesMesene pyrippe
Mesene leucopus
speciesMesene leucopus
Mesene silaris
speciesMesene silaris
Mesene mygdon
speciesMesene mygdon
Mesene croceella
speciesMesene croceella
Mesene eupteryx
speciesMesene eupteryx
Mesene nola
speciesMesene nola
Mesene philonis
speciesMesene philonis
Mesene simplex
speciesMesene simplex
Mesene celetes
speciesMesene celetes
Mesene paraena
speciesMesene paraena
Mesene leucogyna
speciesMesene leucogyna
Mesene bigemmis
speciesMesene bigemmis
Mesene celina
speciesMesene celina
Mesene sardonyx
speciesMesene sardonyx
Mesene babosa
speciesMesene babosa
Mesene veleda
speciesMesene veleda
Mesene nepticula
speciesMesene nepticula
Mesene cyneas
speciesMesene cyneas
Mesene oriens
speciesMesene oriens
Mesene alizari
speciesMesene alizari
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
—
geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Mesene in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 148681.