Heliconius erato, or the red postman, is one of about 40 neotropical species of butterfly belonging to the genus Heliconius. It is also commonly known as the small postman, the red passion flower butterfly, or the crimson-patched longwing. It was described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae.[1]
H. erato exhibits Müllerian mimicry with other Heliconius butterflies such as Heliconius melpomene in order to warn common predators against attacking, which contributes to its surprising longevity.[2][3] It also has a unique mating ritual involving the transfer of anti-aphrodisiacs from males to females.[4]
Recent field work has confirmed the relative abundance of this butterfly.[5]
^Markku Savela. "Heliconius erato". Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms. Retrieved February 5, 2011.
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^Thiele, Sabrina Campos; Milcharek, Oscar; Santos, Fábio Luis dos; Kaminski, Lucas Augusto (2014). "Butterflies (Lepidoptera: Hesperioidea and Papilionoidea) of Porto Mauá, Upper Paraná Atlantic Forest Ecoregion, Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil". Biota Neotropica. 14 (2): 1–10. doi:10.1590/1676-06032014000613.
edition of Systema Naturae. H. erato exhibits Müllerian mimicry with other Heliconius butterflies such as Heliconius melpomene in order to warn common...
species. Molecular work on two distantly related Heliconius comimics, Heliconius melpomene and Heliconiuserato, has revealed that homologous genomic regions...
Heliconiuserato petiverana is a subspecies or geographical race of the red postman butterfly. It is characterized by a red forewing patch and a yellow...
interactions make Heliconius and Passiflora a model system for studies of coevolution. Unlike most other butterflies, several Heliconius species have been...
parallel. distal-less generates wing patterns in the butterflies Heliconiuserato and Heliconius melpomene, which are Müllerian mimics. In so-called facilitated...
among insects, particularly butterflies. The passion-vine butterfly (Heliconiuserato) is known to form nocturnal roosts, typically comprising four individuals...
biology. An example is the development of wing pattern in some species of Heliconius butterfly, which have independently evolved similar patterns. These butterflies...
ecology of Heliconius demeter with description of four new subspecies". Bulletin of the Allyn Museum. 26: 1-19. Beltrán, Margarita (2010). "Heliconius demeter"...
related to Heliconius cydno. Wikispecies has information related to Heliconius cydno. Beltrán, Margarita and Andrew V. Z. Brower. 2008. "Heliconius cydno Doubleday...
Mexican silverspot (Dione moneta), red postman (Heliconiuserato), and zebra heliconian (Heliconius charithonia). It is a larval host plant for the glasswing...
imitates (Batesian mimicry) two local subspecies of Heliconiuserato (hence the common name) and Heliconius melpomene. Larvae feed on Ruellia brevifolia. This...
rare blue transparent Heliconius melpomene tessa, postman Heliconiuserato tobagoensis, small postman or red postman Heliconius ethilla, ethilia longwing...
This is in comparison to two species of Heliconius, Heliconiuserato and Heliconiuserato hydrara. H. erato was found to live an average 3.5 months when...
Heliconiuserato Different species of Heliconius butterfly have independently evolved similar patterns, apparently both facilitated and constrained by...
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