Heliconius melpomene
| Common Postman | |
|---|---|
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Lepidoptera |
| Family: | Nymphalidae |
| Genus: | Heliconius |
| Species: | H. melpomene |
| Binomial name | |
| Heliconius melpomene (Linnaeus, 1758) |
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| Subspecies | |
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many, see text |
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| Synonyms | |
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Papilio melpomene Linnaeus, 1758 |
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The Postman Butterfly, Common Postman, or simply Postman[1] (Heliconius melpomene) is one of the heliconiine butterflies found from Mexico to northern South America.[2] Several species in the genus have very similar markings and are difficult to distinguish.
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[edit] Description
The Postman butterfly has large long wings with an orange stripe down each forewing. It is poisonous and has red patterns on its wings. They tend to look similar to the species 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 before reaching the margin in H. melpomene.[1]
There are many forms of this butterfly. The geographical variation in patterns has been studied using crossing experiments and it has been found that the patterns are associated with a small number of genetic loci.[3]
[edit] Origins
A recent study, using amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) datasets, places the origins of H. melpomene at 2.1 Mya.[4] H. melpomene shows clustering of AFLPs by geography suggesting that the species originated in eastern South America.[4]
[edit] Distribution
The distribution of this butterfly is from Central America to Southern Brazil.
[edit] Larva
The caterpillar feeds on passion flower species. In Central America, the host plants are Passiflora oerstedii and Passiflora menispermifolia. In other places they breed on several other Passiflora species.[5]
[edit] Subspecies
Subspecies of Heliconius melpomene (Linnaeus, 1758) include:[6]
- Heliconius melpomene aglaope (C. & R. Felder, 1862)
- Heliconius melpomene amandus (Grose-Smith & Kirby, 1892)
- Heliconius melpomene amaryllis (C. & R. Felder, 1862)
- Heliconius melpomene cythera (Hewitson, 1869)
- Heliconius melpomene euryades (Riffarth, 1900)
- Heliconius melpomene malleti (Lamas, 1988)
- Heliconius melpomene melpomene (Linnaeus, 1758)
- Heliconius melpomene meriana (Turner, 1967
- Heliconius melpomene modesta (Riffarth, 1900)
- Heliconius melpomene nanna (Stichel, 1899)
- Heliconius melpomene penelope (Staudinger, 1894)
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Heliconius melpomene penelope, male, dorsal side
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Heliconius melpomene penelope, male, ventral side
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Heliconius melpomene penelope female, dorsal side
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Heliconius melpomene penelope female, ventral side
- Heliconius melpomene plesseni (Riffarth, 1907)
- Heliconius melpomene sticheli (Riffarth, 1907)
- Heliconius melpomene rosina (Boisduval, 1870)
- Heliconius melpomene thelxiope (Hübner, [1806])
- Heliconius melpomene unimaculata (Hewitson, 1869)
- Heliconius melpomene vicinus (Ménétriés, 1847)
- Heliconius melpomene vulcanus (Butler, 1865)
- Heliconius melpomene xenoclea (Hewitson, [1853]
[edit] References
- ^ a b Henderson, C.L. (2009) Butterflies, Moths, and Other Invertebrates in Costa Rica. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, p.47.
- ^ Heliconius melpomene, funet.fi
- ^ Sheppard PM, Turner JRG, Brown KS, Benson WW, Singer MC. 1985. Genetics and the evolution of Muellerian mimicry in Heliconius butterflies. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London (B) 308: 433-613
- ^ a b Quek, S. P., B. A. Counterman, P. A. de Moura, M. Z. Cardoso, C. R. Marshall, W. O. McMillan, and M. R. Kronforst. 2010. Dissecting comimetic radiations in heliconius reveals divergent histories of convergent butterflies. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 107:7365-7370.
- ^ Smiley JT. 1978. Plant chemistry and the evolution of host specificity: new evidence from Heliconius and Passiflora. Science 201: 745-7
- ^ Wahlberg N. (last change 26 August 2006). Heliconiini. Nymphalidae.net, accessed 5 February 2010.
[edit] Further reading
- Baxter S. W., Nadeau N. J., Maroja L. S., Wilkinson P., Counterman B. A. et al. (2010). "Genomic Hotspots for Adaptation: The Population Genetics of Müllerian Mimicry in the Heliconius melpomene Clade". PLoS Genetics 6(2): e1000794. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1000794
- Meyer A. (2006). "Repeating Patterns of Mimicry". PLoS Biology 4(10): e341. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0040341
[edit] External links
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Wikispecies has information related to: Heliconius melpomene |
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Heliconius melpomene |
- Heliconius melpomene at the Tree of Life Web Project
- Heliconius melpomene at the Encyclopedia of Life
- Funet Taxonomy
