Longwing

This is a Hybrid of Heliconius cydno galanthus x Heliconius pachinus. An extremely complex thing. I just add some links for further studies, it is too complex to write about it. There are other hybrids of Cydno around. http://www.fotocommunity.de/pc/pc/display/32454663 List of hybrids in the wild! http://www.ucl.ac.uk/taxome/hyb/hybtab.html http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/tag/heliconius/#.U2U0ABBhiK0 Gilbert 2005: http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~gilbert/research/wingpattern/ http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~gilbert/research/wingpattern/legends/fig6.html http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~gilbert/research/wingpattern/legends/fig5.html http://www.kronforstlab.org/chamberlain/projects.html Cydno is a mimic of Sapho and Pachinus is a mimic of Hewitsoni. Cydno and Pachinus do not live together, they are separated by the montains of the Valle Central, but they can interbreed with fertile hybrid. This would probably not happen very often in the wild, but in butterfly houses they might meet more often. They are despite the different phenotype genetically very close related!