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I. J. KITCHING, Early stages and the classification of the milkweed butterflies (Lepidoptera: Danainae), Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, Volume 85, Issue 1, September 1985, Pages 1–97, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1096-3642.1985.tb01516.x
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Abstract
The Danainae, or milkweed butterflies, are a moderate-sized group of around 150 species that are of considerable ecological, physiological and behavioural interest. There are two currently accepted classifications for the subfamily and the aim of this study was to try to resolve this conflict using characters derived from the eggs, larvae and pupae. The 130 new characters (of which 85 are illustrated) are analysed by both phenetic methods (average linkage cluster analysis and principal coordinate analysis) and by cladistic techniques (Wagner tree, character compatibility analysis and manually derived cladograms). Overall, the results corroborate the more recent classification of the Danainae. However, some points of difference are found and, after component analysis, an alternative classification is presented in accordance with the conventions for constructing annotated Linnaean hierarchies.