In2009e2010 two studies published in short successionfocused on family-level Lepidoptera phylogenetics based on several
molecular (primarily nuclear) markers, and both presenting novel results with respect to the family level relationships of butterflies. Regier et al. (2009), in analyses of approximately 6800 bp from 5 protein coding nuclear genes found that Rhopalocera were poly-phyletic (albeit with weak support) with Papilionidae being the sister group of the small macro moth family Callidulidae, and a clade comprising Hesperiidae and Hedylidae being the sister group of the micro moth family Thyrididae. The sister group of the latter clade was a clade comprising the non-papilionid Papil-ionoidea (in a traditional arrangement), and that entire clade in turnwas the sister of CallidulidaeþPapilionidae (Fig. 2C). Mutanenet al. (2010) in analyses of 4451 bp (3rd base removed from the dataset for most genes) from 7 protein coding nuclear and one
mitochondrial gene also found that Thyrididae and Callidulidae were closely related to Rhopalocera, but the last was found to be monophyletic with good support (Fig. 2D). However, like Regier et al. (2009), Mutanen et al. (2010) did find that Hesperiidae and Hedylidae were sister taxa, and that Papilionoidea were non-monophyletic with the non-papilionid Papilionoidea being the sister group of HesperiidaeþHedylidae. Since both studies were based solely on molecular data, neither discussed the morpholog-ical implications of these new results.