ANIMALS – INSECTS – BUTTERFLIES – RED POSTMAN (HELICONIUS ERATO)

Animals - Insects - Butterflies

Red Postman (Heliconius erato)

Scientific Classification:

Kingdom : Animalia
Phylum : Arthropoda
Class : Insecta
Order : Lepidoptera
Family : Nymphalidae
Genus : Heliconius
Species : H. Erato

Description:

The Red postman (Heliconius erato) 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.

The species is remarkably variable in colour and form throughout northern South America, depending on location, and its various appearances can be difficult to distinguish from various other Heliconius butterflies such as Heliconius sara, also known as the sara longwing. Particularly hard to distinguish is the related Heliconius melpomene, or "the postman", which mimics almost all the colour forms of Heliconius erato; colour forms are synchronized between the two throughout their common habitats. It is likely the clade containing Heliconius erato radiated first, establishing the wing pattern diversity found in both species of butterfly. 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.

Heliconius erato is up to about 5.5–8 cm (2.2–3.1 in) in wingspan with a jerky unelegance in flight.

Like Heliconius charithonia, H. erato is one of the few butterflies that collects and digests pollen, conferring considerable longevity to the adults (several months). Adults roost in groups, returning to the same location each night.

Recent Field work has confirmed the relative abundance of this butterfly.

A recent study, using amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) data sets, places the origins of H. erato at 2.8 million years ago. H. erato also shows clustering of AFLPs by geography revealing that H. erato originated in western South America.

Binomial Name:

Name : Heliconius erato
Taxonomist : Carl Linnaeus (Småland - Sweden)
Year : 1758
Subspecies : Many
Synonyms : Papilio erato

Conservation Status by IUCN:

Status : Not Evaluated, or not data available

Philatelic Issues

2003 – Uruguay – Stamp 1 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