page_title: Heliconius
section_title: Species
hierarchical_section_title: Heliconius / Species
caption_attribution_description: English: Heliconius hewitsoni side view - taken at Krohn Conservatory butterfly show.
context_page_description: Heliconius comprises a colorful and widespread genus of brush-footed butterflies commonly known as the longwings or heliconians. This genus is distributed throughout the tropical and subtropical regions of the New World, from South America as far north as the southern United States. The larvae of these butterflies eat passion flower vines. Adults exhibit bright wing color patterns which signal their distastefulness to potential predators.
  Brought to the forefront of scientific attention by Victorian naturalists, these butterflies exhibit a striking diversity and mimicry, both amongst themselves and with species in other groups of butterflies and moths. The study of Heliconius and other groups of mimetic butterflies allowed the English naturalist Henry Walter Bates, following his return from Brazil in 1859, to lend support to Charles Darwin, who had found similar diversity amongst the Galápagos finches.
context_section_description: Most current researchers agree that there are some 39 Heliconius species. These are listed alphabetically here, according to Gerardo Lamas' (2004) checklist. Note that the subspecific nomenclature is incomplete for many species (there are over 2000 published names associated with the genus, many of which are subjective synonyms or infrasubspecific names).
  Heliconius Kluk, 1802
  Heliconius antiochus (Linnaeus, 1767) – Antiochus longwing
  Heliconius aoede (Hübner, [1813])
  Heliconius astraea Staudinger, 1897
  Heliconius atthis Doubleday, 1847 – Athis longwing or false zebra longwing
  Heliconius besckei Ménétriés, 1857
  Heliconius burneyi (Hübner, 1816) – Burney's longwing
  Heliconius charithonia (Linnaeus, 1767) – zebra longwing
  Heliconius clysonymus Latreille, 1817 – Clysonymus longwing, montane longwing
  Heliconius congener Weymer, 1890
  Heliconius cydno (Doubleday, 1847) – cydno longwing
  Heliconius demeter Staudinger, 1897 – Demeter longwing
  Heliconius doris (Linnaeus, 1771) – Doris longwing
  Heliconius egeria (Cramer, 1775)
  Heliconius eleuchia Hewitson, 1853 – eleuchia longwing
  Heliconius elevatus Nöldner, 1901
  Heliconius erato (Linnaeus, 1764) – crimson-patched longwing, red postman
  Heliconius eratosignis (Joicey & Talbot, 1925)
  Heliconius ethilla (Godart, 1819) – Ethilia longwing
  Heliconius godmani Staudinger, 1882
  Heliconius hecale (Fabricius, 1775) – tiger longwing or Hecale longwing
  Heliconius hecalesia Hewitson, 1853 – five-spotted longwing
  Heliconius hecuba (Hewitson, [1858]) – Hecuba longwing
  Heliconius hermathena (Hewitson, 1853) – Hermathena longwing
  Heliconius heurippa (Hewitson, 1853)
  Heliconius hewitsoni Staudinger, 1875
  Heliconius hierax Hewitson, 1869
  Heliconius himera Hewitson, 1867
  Heliconius hortense Guérin, [1844] – Mexican longwing or mountain longwing
  Heliconius ismenius Latreille, [1817] – Ismenius tiger or tiger helconian
  Heliconius lalitae Brévignon, 1996
  Heliconius leucadia (Bates, 1862) – Leucadia longwing
  Heliconius melpomene (Linnaeus, 1758) – (common) postman
  Heliconius metharme (Erichson, [1849])
  Heliconius metis (Moreira & Mielke, 2010)
  Heliconius nattereri Felder, 1865 – Natterer's longwing
  Heliconius numata (Cramer, 1780) – Numata longwing
  Heliconius pachinus Salvin, 1871 – pachinus longwing
  Heliconius pardalinus (Bates, 1862)
  Heliconius peruvianus Felder – Peruvian longwing
  Heliconius ricini (Linnaeus, 1758) – ricini longwing
  Heliconius sapho (Drury, 1782) – Sapho longwing
  Heliconius sara (Fabricius, 1793) – Sara longwing
  Heliconius sergestus (Weymer, 1894)
  Heliconius telesiphe Doubleday, 1847 – telesiphe longwing
  Heliconius timareta (Hewitson, 1867)
  Heliconius tristero Brower, 1996
  Heliconius wallacei Reakirt, 1866 – Wallace's longwing
  Heliconius xanthocles Bates, 1862
caption: Heliconius hewitsoni
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