Unknown

I disagree with suggestion. I believe it to the melpomene. In either case, the range of the butterfly is incompatible with the spotting location and the possible alternate location that the spotter provided.

Hi Sarah... I agree with suggestion... mentioned link also..what is any further doubt in your mind...?

Please explain. This spotting would be 19 or 20, correct? Isn't this made more difficult since we are looking at ti wings down rather than the wings up as shown in the mimicry website? Still having that nasty location problem either way...

No doubt its erato specie.

Check... http://www.mun.ca/biology/scarr/Mimicry_in_Heliconius.gif

Of course, we still have the location. Neither option seems to work.

Yes, the Postman and the Small Postman do look very much alike.

I looked at the map on the bottom of the page. Only saw one spotting near Pensacola for a different species. So I did a search on the site. It mentioned that the small postman may infrequently stray into the very southern parts of Texas (like Brownsville).

Apologies Sarah, i actually took the range info from the Peterson field guide which rather unhelpfully has the range map for the zebra longwing directly under the info on Heliconius erato. It lists them as occasional vagrants to south Texas but doesn't mention Florida. Sorry for the confusion. It still looks like H. erato though.

It looks like a Red postman like my spotting - there are red marks on the bottom of the body that are hidden in this spotting, but they still look identical: http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/6912822

A Small Postman (Heliconius erato) do come in a variety of color forms. In this configuration (from all butterfly exhibits and pictures of live specimens that I have seen), there should be identifiable red dots near the body. It could be gender specific, of course. I am interested in which site indicated it had been recorded in FL.

Sarah, there are recorded sightings for this species in Florida on the butterfliesandmoths.org website. There is a sighting map on the link above - you will need to scroll down to the bottom of the page.

It would need to be South America or Southern Central America. Have you been to a Butterfly Exhibit? A zoo with an enclosure?

This is an Erato heliconian which is recorded in Florida but very unlikely to have made it as far north as Indiana! Nice shot!

Well, it does look like a postman (Heliconius melpomene). Can't explain the location...

But in Indiana? On hibiscus?

That appears to be right, Alice; it's one of the postman butterflies: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heliconius_melpomene

Crimson-patched Longwing!?