Neotropical Butterflies

In response to a query arising from a photo I took in Colombia, Andy of the butterfliesofamerica.com website responded thus:

Dear Guy,

Thanks for your notes!

Those buckeyes are amazingly confusing on their own, but the flip-flopping
nomenclature in recent decades has left everyone confused! Probably the
best thing for you to read would be a very recent note in the NEWS of the
Lepidopterists' Society by John Calhoun titled "The identities of Papilio
evarete Cramer and Papilio genoveva Cramer (Nymphalidae), with notes on
the occurrence of Junonia evarete in Florida."

Given your questions, this article is "must read" note! ...

Then if you really want more details, you should read the section on
Junonia in:

Neild, A. F. E. 2008. The Butterflies of Venezuela. Part 2. Nymphalidae
II (Acraeinae, Libytheinae, Nymphalinae, Ithomiinae, Morphinae). A
Comprehensive Guide to the Identification of Adult Nymphalidae,
Papilionidae, and Pieridae. Meridian Publications, London. 276pp, 84pl.

To make a very very long story short, we have the photos correctly
determined and named on our website (after lengthy reviews!), and they are
now reversed in the field guide you cited. Thus, since 2008:

Mangrove = genoveva [http://butterfliesofamerica.com/t/Junonia_genoveva_a.htm]
Tropical = evarete [http://butterfliesofamerica.com/t/Junonia_evarete_a.htm]

genoveva (mangrove) and evarete (tropical) occur together on most
Caribbean islands and in northern South America, as well as in S Florida
where genoveva (mangrove) tends to be more widespread and common than
evarete (Tropical).

Your specimen from Colombia is evarete (tropical). The best way to
separate these is on the color of the underside of the antennal club.
Though your photo shows the upperside of the antennae only, the pale
border to the club suggests a pale underside. Also, the pale forewing
band and somewhat bluish tint to the dorsal hindwing give it away as
evarete (tropical). The orange submarginal hw band is not diagnostic for
the two species, though as you correctly noted, the band tends to be
narrower on evarete (tropical) and wider on genoveva (mangrove), though
there is overlap between the two species.

I hope this helps! Let me know if you have further questions on these!

Best,
Andy

thanks, Guy, for posting Andy's helpful comments.
k