Reference photo of a pinned Heliconius melpomene specimen, upper side

Reference photo

Photo: The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London · Natural History Museum, London · CC BY 4.0 (cropped and resized). Not the specimen in Lucy’s drawer.

Tray 18 of 39

Heliconius melpomene

(Linnaeus, 1758

Order by November 30 for delivery by Christmas.

Your framed specimen is a different individual of the same species, chosen and mounted by Lucy.

  • Nymphalidae
  • Butterfly
Catalog label
Family
Nymphalidae
Subfamily
Heliconiinae
Tribe
Heliconiini
Where it lives
Central America, South America

From the catalog of Lucy Garcia Salik, PhD. A mounted specimen from a licensed supplier.

Research notes

From published sources, not from Lucy’s catalog. Each note lists where it came from.

Description

Known in English as the postman. Its wing pattern works as a warning signal to predators, and sources describe the species as distasteful. The pattern is not the same everywhere. The species is split into many named subspecies, and each region has its own color form. Because of this, specimens from different places can look quite different from each other.

Where it lives

Sources place this butterfly widely across tropical America, from low ground up into the foothills. Over much of Central America and the lower slopes of the Andes it shares rainforest with its close relative Heliconius cydno. Each region has its own color form.

Habitat

This butterfly is linked to forest edges and other brighter, more open places rather than the deep, closed forest. One study says it keeps to disturbed habitat. Another source mentions open ground near rivers and streams in both wet and dry forest. Its close relative H. cydno, by contrast, lives under the closed canopy.

How the adults behave

Adults fly by day. They mostly stay in shade and come out into the sun when flowers are open, then go back to shady spots to roost later in the day. As well as drinking nectar, adults gather pollen and get nutrients from it. Across the genus, this pollen habit is tied to a long adult life. Research on flight found that this species and its co-mimic beat their wings in matching ways. The authors explain this as a result of predators favoring a shared look.

Life cycle

The life cycle goes egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, adult. Eggs are laid one at a time. The caterpillar sheds its skin several times as it grows. Then it forms a brownish chrysalis with gold markings and spines. Compared with many butterflies, adults live a long time, and sources link this to their pollen feeding.

Look-alikes

The main lookalike is Heliconius erato, sometimes called the red postman. The two species have ended up with nearly the same wing patterns wherever they live together. This is Müllerian mimicry: both species taste bad, so sharing one warning pattern helps both of them. Where their ranges meet, the two often fly side by side, so the regional color form alone may not tell them apart.

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