Tropical Buckeye (Junonia zonalis, J. evarete)

In the US, Tropical Buckeye can be found along the Mexican border. It also occurs in southern Florida where it is rare and local. There's much confusion in the field guides over the proper scientific name for this taxon. Recently it's been shown that J. genoveva, more properly now called J. neildi is the mangrove feeder, not the species referred to as Tropical Buckeye shown on this page. To add to the confusion, both the taxonomy and nomenclature have been problematic and, at times, misrepresented. Recent scientific literature indicates that the entity seen in south Florida and called "Tropical Buckeye", as shown on this page should be called Junonia zonalis. These updates have not yet made it into the popular field guides. For more information, see Cong et al., (2020) Speciation in North American Junonia from a genomic perspective. Systematic Entomology (2020), DOI: 10.1111/syen.12428.


Tropical Buckeye (Junonia zonalis zonalis) Miami-Dade Co., FL 9 Aug 2003	Tropical Buckeye (Junonia zonalis zonalis) Miami-Dade Co., FL 9 Aug 2003

'Dark' Tropical Buckeye (Junonia evarete nigrosuffusa)
Chihuahua Woods RR tracks, Hidalgo Co., TX
18 Oct 2004

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Created on ... May 6, 2007 | jeffpippen9@gmail.com