ANIMALS – INSECTS – BUTTERFLIES – BANDED ORANGE HELICONIAN (DRYADULA PHAETUSA)

Animals - Insects - Butterflies

Banded orange heliconian (Dryadula phaetusa)

Scientific Classification:

Kingdom : Animalia
Phylum : Arthropoda
Class : Insecta
Order : Lepidoptera
Family : Nymphalidae
Genus : Dryadula
Species : D. Phaetusa

Description:

Dryadula is a monotypic genus of the butterfly family Nymphalidae. Its single species, Dryadula phaetusa, known as the Banded orange heliconian, Banded orange, or Orange tiger, is native from Brazil to central Mexico, and in summer can be found rarely as far north as central Florida. Its wingspan ranges from 86 to 89 mm, and it is colored a bright orange with thick black stripes in males and a duller orange with fuzzier black stripes in females.

It feeds primarily on the nectar of flowers and on bird droppings; its caterpillar feeds on passion vines including Passiflora tetrastylis. It is generally found in lowland tropical fields and valleys.

This species is unpalatable to birds and belongs to the "orange" Batesian mimicry complex.

Prior to their mating season, males of this species congregate by the hundreds on patches of moist soil that contain mineral salts (mud-puddling). When they cannot find such deposits, the insects visit various animals to drink salty secretions from their skin and nostrils.

The genus Dryadula Michner, 1942, is monotypic; the type species is Papilio phaetusa Linnaeus, 1758 (Syst. Nat. 10 ed., 1: 478). The type locality, given as "Indiis", is supposed to refer to the West Indies or northern South America.

Binomial Name:

Name : Dryadula phaetusa
Taxonomist : Carl Linnaeus (Småland - Sweden)
Year : 1758
Subspecies : None, or not data available
Synonyms : None, or not data available

Conservation Status by IUCN:

Status : Not Evaluated, or not data available

Philatelic Issues

2003 – Uruguay – Stamp 3 of 4, from Butterflies Series

Issue information:

Country: Uruguay
Date: March 18th, 2003
Printed: 10.000 Copies
Type: Stamp from Series of 4 Stamps
Value: UYP 12

Stamp: Rectangular
Size: 23 mm. x 35 mm.
Perforation: Circular
Gum: Water Activated