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Postman

Heliconius sp

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33.0976, -116.994

Field Notes

Description:

Black butterfly with a white, horizontal stripe across the back wings. There is a vertical red stripe across each top wing. This is either Heliconius melpomene or Heliconius erato. "Two features found on the underside help to distinguish H. erato from H. melpomene—H. erato has four red dots where the wing attaches to the thorax while H. melpomene has three and the yellowish white stripe on the underside reaches the margin of the hindwing in H. erato but ends early in H. melpomene.." - Wikipedia

Habitat:

San Diego Zoo Safari Park's butterfly exhibit. Found in South America.

Species ID Suggestions

Heliconius sp.

Heliconius erato petiverana

Comments (8)

No reason for sorry. It might be Petiverana, although Melpomene is a little more common in butterfly houses. I hope Cindy have a ventral shot.
sorry for my hasty identification, I thought it was the same kind of one of my photos
http://benthebutterflyguy.blogspot.in/2010/08/heliconius-erato-longwing-butterfly.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heliconius_erato
Unfortunately it is not possible to id this one without a ventral view. It is either Heliconius melpomene OR Heliconius erato. Subspecies are tricky in Butterfly houses Sinne they got their pupae from anywhere and sometimes wrongly labelled.

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