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Gossamer-winged Butterflies
Lycaenidae
Lycaenidae is a family of butterflies with over 6,000 species worldwide; its members are also called gossamer-winged butterflies. It is the second-largest butterfly family (behind Nymphalidae, the brush-footed butterflies), constituting about 30% of the known butterfly species.
The family comprises eight subfamilies, including the blues (Polyommatinae), the coppers (Lycaeninae), the hairstreaks (Theclinae), and the harvesters (Miletinae).
11 branches of this family, most-observed first
Blues
subfamilyPolyommatinae
Hairstreaks
subfamilyTheclinae
Coppers
subfamilyLycaeninae
Aphnaeinae
subfamilyAphnaeinae
Harvesters
subfamilyMiletinae
Sunbeam Butterflies and Allies
subfamilyCuretinae
Algivorous Gossamer-winged Butterflies
subfamilyPoritiinae
Liphyrinae
subfamilyLiphyrinae
Tuttiola
genusTuttiola
Callicista
genusCallicista
Trichiolaus
genusTrichiolaus
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 Lycaenidae 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 47923.