Summary
Archaeoprepona is a genus of Neotropical charaxine butterflies in the family Nymphalidae, native to Mexico, Central America, northern South America, and the Caribbean. The underside of their wings is pale brownish, while the upperside is dark with a distinct bright blue band.
Taxonomy
Most taxa were described before Hans Fruhstorfer coined the genus Archaeoprepona in 1916, and were therefore originally placed in other genera. This includes the type species of the genus, Archaeoprepona demophon, first described as Papilio demophon by Carl Linnaeus. Even after the description of the genus Archaeoprepona, the members have commonly been included in Prepona instead. Species in the genus Archaeoprepona: - Archaeoprepona Fruhstorfer, 1915 - Archaeoprepona amphimachus (Fabricius, 1775) – white-spotted prepona or turquoise-banded shoemaker - Archaeoprepona camilla (Godman & Salvin, [1884]) - Archaeoprepona chalciope (Hübner, [1823]) - Archaeoprepona demophon (Linnaeus, 1758) – one-spotted prepona, banded king shoemaker - Archaeoprepona demophoon (Hübner, [1814]) – Hübner's shoemaker, silver king shoemaker - Archaeoprepona licomedes (Cramer, [1777]) – Cramer's shoemaker - Archaeoprepona meander (Cramer, [1775]) – Meander prepona - Archaeoprepona phaedra (Godman & Salvin, [1884])
Biogeographic realm
Neotropical realm
Systematics
Clade showing phylogenetics of Archaeoprepona
Etymology
Amphimachus is a figure in Greek mythology.