Anthanassa frisia
(Poey, 1833) · speciesAt a glance
Sources7 archives
Databases and archives Anthanassa frisia's data was compiled from.
WikipediaWikimedia Foundation3 languages↗
BioWikiNetmultilingual Wikipediamultilingual↗
GBIFGlobal Biodiversity Information Facility466 records↗
ENAEuropean Nucleotide Archive · EMBL-EBI158 eDNA detections↗
BOLD SystemsCentre for Biodiversity Genomics46 specimens↗
Open Tree of LifeOpenTreephylogeny backbone↗
GLoBIGlobal Biotic Interactionsbiotic interactions↗Every layer below draws on the sources above — open one to explore it, or use ← → to move between tabs.
Anthanassa frisia, the Cuban crescentspot, Cuban checkerspot or Cuban crescent, is a butterfly of the family Nymphalidae. Subspecies tulcis is known by the common names pale-banded crescent or Tulcis crescent; it is treated as a species by some authors. The nominate subspecies is found in the West Indies and southern Florida, with strays to northern Florida. Subspecies tulcis is found from Argentina north through Central America and Mexico to southern Texas, strays to west Texas and southern Arizona. Other subspecies are resident to South America. The wingspan of subspecies frisia is 32–45 mm. Adults are on wing most of the year in southern Florida and throughout the year in the tropics. Subspecies tulcis has a wingspan of 32–35 mm. Adults are on wing from May to November in southern Texas. Larvae of subspecies frisia feed on Beloperone guttata, while tulcis larvae have been recorded on Dicliptera species. Other recorded food plants include Ruellia species. Adults feed on flower nectar.
No narrative description available for this taxon yet.
No structured trait data for this taxon yet.
A DNA barcode is a short, standardised stretch of genes that works like a fingerprint — enough to tell one species from another. Below is the molecular trace Anthanassa frisia has left across the world's sequence archives.
At a glance
★ the standard DNA barcode for this group — the short region actually read to tell this species apart. The rest are extra genes sequenced along the way.
How far back this lineage goes — and how we know. Everything here is measured in Ma, short for “mega-annum”: millions of years ago. The chart reads left to right like a calendar of the Earth, from the deep past on the left to today at the right edgetop to bottom like a core drilled through the Earth, from the deep past at the top down to today at the bottom.
At a glance
When this lineage existed
How to read this: the coloured strip along the bottomdown the left is the geological calendar — the standard epochs (Pliocene, Pleistocene…) every museum uses, shown so you can see which chapter of Earth's history this lineage lived in. This lineage is a young one, so the strip is zoomed in to epochs — the finer subdivisions inside a period. The orange marker is the DNA clock: DNA accumulates mutations at a roughly steady rate, so comparing this species' DNA with its relatives estimates when the lineage split off — independently of any fossil.
Record type466 records
Range
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
Museum / Voucheredphysical evidence
Backed by a physical specimen — a herbarium sheet, sample or voucher held in a collection. “Vouchered” means supported by material evidence, not just an observation.
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
Holding institutions5 of 12 geolocated
Institutions and collections holding physical, vouchered specimens of this species — click a row to fly to it on the map.
| Institution | Specimens |
|---|---|
| Cambridge, US | 85 |
| Natural History Museum of Utahlocation not on record | 27 |
| New Haven, US | 26 |
| OSUClocation not on record | 14 |
| Washington, US | 8 |
| Tartu, EE | 5 |
| Cleveland Museum of Natural History, OH (CLEV)location not on record | 3 |
| University of Pennsylvanialocation not on record | 2 |
| Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural Historylocation not on record | 2 |
| Georgia Museum of Natural Historylocation not on record | 1 |
| Saint John, CA | 1 |
| El Colegio de la Frontera Surlocation not on record | 1 |
Where the DNA of Anthanassa frisia was picked up in samples of water, soil or air — nobody saw the organism, only its DNA left behind. A trace is a clue that the species was near, not a confirmed sighting.
Signal
Where its DNA was found
How strong is each trace?
Modelled climatemodelled
How to read this: each dot is one detection of this species' DNA in an environmental sample. The confidence meter weighs how many independent studies and places back up the signal — one detection in one study is a hint; many across several studies is solid. Records dated before 2008 (when eDNA methods began) are treated as likely mislabeled and left off the map.