Euptychiina is one of the largest subtribe

Tribe (biology)

In biology, a tribe is a taxonomic rank between family and genus. It is sometimes subdivided into subtribes.Some examples include the tribes: Canini, Acalypheae, Hominini, Bombini, and Antidesmeae.-See also:* Biological classification* Rank...

s of the butterfly subfamily

Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...

 Satyrinae

Satyrinae

Satyrinae, the satyrines or satyrids, commonly known as the Browns, is a subfamily of the Nymphalidae . They were formerly considered a distinct family, Satyridae. This group contains nearly half of the known diversity of brush-footed butterflies...

 (family Nymphalidae

Nymphalidae

The Nymphalidae is a family of about 5,000 species of butterflies which are distributed throughout most of the world. These are usually medium sized to large butterflies. Most species have a reduced pair of forelegs and many hold their colourful wings flat when resting. They are also called...

). The only two comprehensive studies that include Euptychiina are the works of L. D. Miller and W. Forster, though the latter is now largely considered obsolete.

Although the classification of brush-footed butterflies (Nymphalidae) is currently under heavy revision, the Euptychiina is still little-studied by taxonomist

Taxonomy

Taxonomy is the science of identifying and naming species, and arranging them into a classification. The field of taxonomy, sometimes referred to as "biological taxonomy", revolves around the description and use of taxonomic units, known as taxa...

s. In fact, the group is so difficult to classify that D'Abrera placed almost all Euptychiina in a so-called wastebasket genus that he called "Euptychia" in his popular guide to Neotropical butterflies.

Taxonomy and evolution

A recent study proposes a hypothesis for the evolutionary relationships of Euptychiina, including estimates of time for the origin and diversification of major lineages, and also including a theory of biogeography

Biogeography

Biogeography is the study of the distribution of species , organisms, and ecosystems in space and through geological time. Organisms and biological communities vary in a highly regular fashion along geographic gradients of latitude, elevation, isolation and habitat area...

for the group.