Phylogeny

Nymphylidae

The larvae of many Nymphalid butterflies exhibit this behavior, especially in the genuses Eurytelinae and Charaxinae (Freitas and Oliveira 1992).

Nymphylidae phylogenetic tree

Fig. 3. Phylogenetic tree of the Nymphylidae family.

Chrysomelidae


Fecal shields are only found in the larvae of more than 7000 beetles in the Chrysomelidae family (Freitas and Oliveira 1992).

The larvae of the beetle Plagiometriona clavata in the Chrysomelidae family create fecal shields as defense (Vencl et al. 1999). Also in this family, the larvae of the Blepharida thois create fecal shields (Vencl and Morton 1998). The fecal shield has developed convergently in the Lema trilinea, a beetle with a similar ecological niche as P. clavata that is in the Criocerinae family (Vencl et al. 1999).

Beetle phylogenetic tree

Fig. 4. Phylogenetic tree of the Chrysomeloidea family.