Types of Junonias
If you remember back to your school days, science has a very specific way to order all life forms called a taxonomic hierarchy. Below is the hierarchy showing where the five subspecies of Junonias fall within the hierarchy:
Biota Animalia (Kingdom)
Mollusca (Phylum)
Gastropoda (Class)
Caenogastropoda (Subclass)
Neogastropoda (Order)
Volutoidea (Superfamily)
Volutidae (Family)
Scaphellinae (Subfamily)
Scaphella (Genus)
Scaphella junonia (Species)
Scaphella junonia butleri (Subspecies)
Scaphella junonia curryi (Subspecies)
Scaphella junonia elizabethae (Subspecies)
Scaphella junonia johnstoneae (Subspecies)
Scaphella junonia junonia (Subspecies)
Scaphella junonia junonia was the first subspecies to be described and named. Jean-Baptiste Lamarck a member of the French Academy of Sciences and was very well known for his taxonomic work, most notably the classification of mollusks. You will notice that when subspecies of animals are listed, they frequently read like this, “Scaphella junonia junonia (Lamarck, 1804)". That’s the scientific way to attribute the individual who first described the animal and the year in which it was described. Oftentimes, the last part of the name is a reference to the individual who first described the animal. A fun way to have your name recorded for all posterity!!!
The name Junonia comes from the ancient Roman goddess, Juno. During Lamarck’s time, it was very common to name new species after mythological entities. There is also a darling story about a Native American and the goddess Juno was once considered to be connected to emotion love, which is where the Native American story may have derived from.
The five subspecies of Junonias known at this time are butleri (Clench, 1953), curryi (Petuch & Berschauer, 2019), elizabethae (Petuch & Sargent, 2011), johnstoneae (Clench, 1953), and junonia (Lamarck, 1804). As you can see, new subspecies are being found and described as recently as 2019!!!
Here are links for you to see what each subspecies looks like as well as additional information about the subspecies.