# Junonia

Junonia is a genus of nymphalid butterflies, described by Jacob Hübner in 1819. They are commonly known as buckeyes, pansies or commodores. This genus flies on every continent except Antarctica and Europe. The genus contains roughly 30 to 35 species.

## Description

These butterflies are medium to large (wingspan 40–110 mm). The ground colour is brown or grey suffused blue. Spots on the wings are orange, blue or pink and sometimes large. Many of the species can occur in several colour forms. The head is of moderate size with smooth, prominent eyes. The palpi are rather long, sharply pointed, ascending, generally convergent and scaly, sometimes more or less hairy. The antennae are of moderate length, generally with a rather short, abruptly formed club. The thorax is robust, ovate, rather sparingly clothed with hairs. The wing characters are: large, broad, variable in outline. Forewing: costa more or less arched, sometimes very strongly so; apical portion more or less produced, sometimes very prominent, with a strong projection on the hind margin at the extremity of the first discoidal nervule; hind margin always more or less dentate and emarginate, with, in many species, a considerable projection at extremity of third median nervule; inner margin nearly straight, or slightly emarginate about centre; discoidal cell generally closed by a slender nervule. Hindwing: costa strongly arched at base, and more or less so throughout; hind margin always more or less scalloped, sometimes simply rounded (without any marked projections), sometimes with a more or less elongate production of anal angle, and occasionally with a longer or shorter projection of hind margin at extremity of first median nervule; inner margins deeply grooved and entirely covering the under surface of the abdomen; discoidal cell generally open. The abdomen short, compressed, rather slender.
The larvae are rather stout, almost of equal thickness throughout, armed with strong branched spines; sometimes with two short, similar spines on head. The pupae are moderately angulated, with raised tubercles on the back, head slightly bifid. Sometimes hardly angulated, the anterior portions more rounded.

## Biology

Junonia are good fliers. The larvae feed on a wide variety of plants, among others Labiatae, Acanthaceae, Amaranthaceae, Scrophulariaceae, Onagraceae, Leguminosae, Balsaminaceae, Gramineae, Melastomataceae, Plantaginaceae, Aucubaceae and Compositae. The species found in South India generally show very sensitive behaviour.

## Taxonomy

The leaf butterflies J. ansorgei and J. cymodoce (both from Africa) have traditionally been included in Kallima, but this genus is now usually limited to Asian species. Instead of being placed in Junonia, the two are sometimes awarded their own genus, Kallima. The leaf butterfly J. tugela is sometimes included in Precis instead of Junonia.
Recent phylogenetic and DNA research resulted some subspecies being elevated to species rank, along with some new species descriptions. Currently, the species Junonia divaricata, Junonia evarete, Junonia genoveva, and Junonia litoralis are restricted to South America. Six species are present in the United States: Junonia coenia, Junonia grisea, Junonia neildi, Junonia nigrosuffusa, Junonia stemosa, and Junonia zonalis.
The species in Junonia:
| Scientific name | Common Name | Distribution |
| Junonia adulatrix (Fruhstorfer, 1903) | | Pulau Sumba |
| Junonia africana (Richelmann, 1913) | | Cameroon |
| Junonia almana (Linnaeus, 1758) | peacock pansy | Cambodia and South Asia |
| Junonia ansorgei (Rothschild, 1899) | Ansorge's leaf butterfly | Cameroon, the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, southern Ethiopia, Uganda, western Kenya, western Tanzania and Zambia. |
| Junonia artaxia Hewitson, 1864 | commodore | eastern Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Lomami, Kabinda, Lualaba, Shaba and Tanganika) Burundi, Kenya, southern and western Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. |
| Junonia atlites (Linnaeus, 1763) | grey pansy or gray pansy | India, southern China, Cambodia, Indochina, the Malay Peninsula, western and central Indonesia, and the Philippines. |
| Junonia chorimene (Guérin-Méneville, [1844]) | golden pansy | Senegal, the Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Mali, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Uele, Ituri, Kivu and Lualaba), Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, northern and western Kenya, northern Tanzania, south-western Arabia and Yemen. |
| Junonia coenia Hübner, [1822] | (common) buckeye | Southern Canada, United States, Bermuda, Cuba, Isle of Pines, and southern Mexico |
| Junonia cytora Doubleday, 1847 (formerly Salamis cytora) | western blue beauty | Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, and Benin |
| Junonia cymodoce (Cramer, [1777]) | western leaf, blue leaf butterfly | Guinea, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, São Tomé and Príncipe, the Republic of the Congo, Angola, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, western Uganda, western Tanzania and north-western Zambia |
| Junonia divaricata C. & R. Felder, [1867] | | Suriname, French Guiana |
| Junonia elgiva (Druce, 1773) | southern soldier pansy | Kenya, Tanzania, Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Swaziland |
| Junonia erigone (Cramer, [1775]) | northern argus | Java and New Guinea |
| Junonia evarete (Cramer, [1779]) | | South & Central America |
| Junonia genoveva (Cramer, [1780]) | | Central America, Honduras, Florida (US), Bahamas, Antilles, Puerto Rico, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Guyana, Suriname, Paraguay, Uruguay |
| Junonia goudotii (Boisduval, 1833) | | Madagascar, the Comoros and Mauritius |
| Junonia gregorii Butler, [1896] | Gregori's brown pansy | eastern Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, western Tanzania and Kenya |
| Junonia grisea Austin & Emmel, 1998 | gray buckeye | North America, west of the Rocky Mountains |
| Junonia hadrope Doubleday, [1847] | Volta pansy | Ghana (the Volta Region) |
| Junonia hedonia (Linnaeus, 1764) | brown pansy | Southeast Asia, Indonesia, and Australia. |
| Junonia hierta (Fabricius, 1798) | yellow pansy | Southwestern China, Sikkim, Tropical Africa, Madagascar, Arabia |
| Junonia intermedia (C. & R. Felder, [1867]) | Sulawesi Chocolate Pansy | Sulawesi |
| Junonia iphita (Cramer, [1779]) | chocolate pansy | Asia |
| Junonia lemonias (Linnaeus, 1758) | lemon pansy | Cambodia and South Asia |
| Junonia litoralis Brévignon, 2009 | | South America |
| Junonia natalica (Felder, 1860) | Natal pansy | Angola, south-eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi, Kenya, Tanzania, Pemba Island, Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, northern Botswana, Namibia(Caprivi, Swaziland), South Africa (Limpopo, Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape) |
| Junonia neildi Brévignon, 2004 | mangrove buckeye | Florida, south Texas, Mexico, and the Caribbean |
| Junonia nigrosuffusa Barnes & McDunnough, 1916 | dark buckeye | southwestern United States and Mexico. |
| Junonia oenone (Linnaeus, 1758) | dark blue pansy | Madagascar, Aldabra, Astove, Assumption and Cosmoledo Island. |
| Junonia orithya (Linnaeus, 1758) | eyed pansy or blue pansy | south-eastern Asia, Cambodia and in Australia |
| Junonia pacoma Grishin, 2020 | Pacific mangrove buckeye | western Mexico. |
| Junonia rhadama (Boisduval, 1833) | brilliant blue | Madagascar, Mauritius, Rodrigues, Réunion, the Comoros, and the Seychelles (Astove Island). |
| Junonia schmiedeli (Fiedler, 1920) | | Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Uele, Ituri, Kivu, Maniema, Sankuru, Lualaba), and Uganda |
| Junonia sophia (Fabricius, 1793) | little commodore | Senegal, the Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Nigeria, Cameroon, Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Malawi, and Zambia. |
| Junonia stemosa Grishin, 2020 | twintip buckeye | south Texas. |
| Junonia stygia (Aurivillius, 1894) | brown pansy or dark pansy | Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, the Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic, Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. |
| Junonia terea (Drury, 1773) | soldier commodore or soldier pansy | Senegal, the Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, western Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, Uganda, central Kenya, north-western Tanzania, |
| Junonia timorensis Wallace, 1869 | | Sumba |
| Junonia touhilimasa Vuillot, 1892 | naval pansy | Democratic Republic of the Congo (Shaba), south-western Tanzania, northern Zambia, and Zimbabwe. |
| Junonia tugela (Trimen, 1879) | African leaf butterfly (moved to Precis tugela) | southern Africa, ranging from Ethiopia to South Africa |
| Junonia vestina C. & R. Felder, [1867] | Andean buckeye | southern Peru and Bolivia |
| Junonia villida (Fabricius, 1787) | meadow argus | Australia and Nelsons Island |
| Junonia wahlbergi Brévignon, 2008 | | Guyana |
| Junonia westermanni Westwood, 1870 | blue spot pansy | Tropical Africa |
| Junonia zonalis C. & R. Felder, [1867] | Caribbean buckeye | Florida, the Caribbean, Mexico, Central America, and tropical South America |