DEB 9806779 DeVries Resolving the higher level phylogeny of the diverse family Nymphalidae is one of the most controversial problems in butterfly systematics. Independent of the type of data used (morphological or DNA sequence) previous studies on the Nymphalidae have produced conflicting or poorly resolved trees, possibly the result of inadequate taxon sampling. Our work seeks to overcome this limitation through examining a large number of species within four closely related nymphalid subfamilies, and using a combination of early stage and adult characters. By employing these two protocols our study will be set apart from all previous systematic research on this group. A complementary objective of our higher level study involves a phylogenetic study of the neotropical genus Morpho, obvious components of all neotropical forests and well known to entomologists and the general public. Nevertheless, our ecological and evolutionary understanding of these butterflies has been impeded by the lack of a well resolved phylogeny, something that our work seeks to rectify. To construct phylogenies for nymphalid subfamilies and the genus Morpho, parsimony methods will be used to analyze data for early stages and adults. By including different hierarchical levels in our analyses (species to subfamily), it will be possible to assess variation within each character, and therefore our study will constitute the most complete evaluation of character divergence ever performed for these nymphalid subfamilies. Preliminary results show the feasibility of our proposed higher level and species level studies, and our results will make a significant contribution toward understanding one of the best known butterfly families.
