Genus Memphis - Leafwings

Anaea (in part)

BugGuide follows the classification of Opler & Warren and All-Leps in splitting the genus Anaea and placing 3 of its former species into the genus Memphis (see discussion in Taxonomy Forum)

Memphis Hübner, [1819]

The genus Memphis is very closely related to Anaea and (along with Fountainea) is often included within it. It is an rather diverse assortment of varied looking species that probably are not all particularly closely related to one another, and could easily be split into further genera (but that practice has not been followed by most authors). If this were followed, the brownish Caribbean species (?and perhaps M. pithyusa and kin?) would belong to genus (or subgenus) Cymatogramma.

2 species recorded from North of Mexico in North America Memphis echemus & M. pithyusa. M. echemus was recorded once from s. Texas, and is very ulikely to turn up there again (it is a species of the Antilles). However, species native to the Greater Antilles and Bahamas (including M. echemus) could conceivably turn up in southern Florida.

Similar to Anaea and Fountainea, but distinctive (in M. pithyusa) in having dark brown wings with light spots near the outer margins and reflective blue coloration near the base above, while the other two genera have shades of rusty brown to orange above.

Species native to the Bahamas and Greater Antilles are orange-brown above, darker toward the outer margin, often with light spots also near the outer margin, and have distinctive eye spots on the hind wing (near the tail) both above and below that are not seen in our species of Anaea nor Fountainea.

Both species recorded from the U.S. are tropical strays in North America, occasionally wandering north from (or through) Mexico into southern United States. M. pithyusa is fairly regularly seen in extreme south Texas.

Genus Mephis at Butterflies of America.