The Red Postman is one of about 40 Neotropical species of butterfly

Butterfly

A butterfly is a mainly day-flying insect of the order Lepidoptera, which includes the butterflies and moths. Like other holometabolous insects, the butterfly's life cycle consists of four parts: egg, larva, pupa and adult. Most species are diurnal. Butterflies have large, often brightly coloured...

 belonging to the genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 Heliconius

Heliconiinae

The Heliconiinae, commonly called heliconians or longwings, are a subfamily of the brush-footed butterflies . They can be divided into 45-50 genera and were sometimes treated as a separate family Heliconiidae within the Papilionoidea...

. It is also commonly known as the Small Postman, the Red Passion Flower

Passion flower

Passiflora, known also as the passion flowers or passion vines, is a genus of about 500 species of flowering plants, the namesakes of the family Passifloraceae. They are mostly vines, with some being shrubs, and a few species being herbaceous. For information about the fruit of the passiflora...

 Butterfly, or the Crimson-patched Longwing.

Description

The species is remarkably variable in colour and form throughout northern South America

South America

South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...

, 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

Sara Longwing

The Sara Longwing is a species of neotropical heliconiid butterfly found from Mexico to the Amazon Basin and southern Brazil. It is a colourful species: the dorsal wing surface is black with a large medial patch of metallic blue that is framed by two bands of white on the forewings. The Sara...

. Particularly hard to distinguish is the related Heliconius melpomene

Heliconius melpomene

The Postman Butterfly, Common Postman, or simply Postman is one of the Heliconiine butterflies found from Mexico to northern South America. Several species in the genus have very similar markings and are difficult to distinguish.- Subspecies :Subspecies of Heliconius melpomene include:*...

, 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

Clade

A clade is a group consisting of a species and all its descendants. In the terms of biological systematics, a clade is a single "branch" on the "tree of life". The idea that such a "natural group" of organisms should be grouped together and given a taxonomic name is central to biological...

 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 centimetre in wingspan with a jerky unelegance in flight.

Like Heliconius charitonius, 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.

Origins

A recent study, using amplified fragment length polymorphism

Amplified fragment length polymorphism

Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism PCR is a PCR-based tool used in genetics research, DNA fingerprinting, and in the practice of genetic engineering. Developed in the early 1990s by Keygene, AFLP uses restriction enzymes to digest genomic DNA, followed by ligation of adaptors to the sticky...

 (AFLP) and mitochondrial DNA

Mitochondrial DNA

Mitochondrial DNA is the DNA located in organelles called mitochondria, structures within eukaryotic cells that convert the chemical energy from food into a form that cells can use, adenosine triphosphate...

(mtDNA) data sets, places the origins of H. erato at . H. erato also shows clustering of AFLPs by geography revealing that H. erato originated in western South America.

Subspecies

• H. e. erato (Linnaeus, 1758)
• H. e. phyllis (Fabricius, 1775)
• H. e. cyrbia Godart, 1819
• H. e. demophoon Ménétriés, 1855
• H. e. chestertonii Hewitson, 1872
• H. e. petiverana Doubleday, 1847
• H. e. estrella Bates, 1862
• H. e. hydara Hewitson, 1867
• H. e. guarica Reakirt, 1868
• H. e. notabilis Salvin & Godman, 1868
• H. e. etylus Salvin, 1871
• H. e. venustus Salvin, 1871
• H. e. favorinus Hopffer, 1874
• H. e. lativitta Butler, 1877
• H. e. amazona Staudinger, 1897
• H. e. colombina Staudinger, 1897
• H. e. magnifica Riffarth, 1900
• H. e. amalfreda Riffarth, 1901
• H. e. dignus Stichel, 1923
• H. e. emma Riffarth, 1901
• H. e. microclea Kaye, 1907
• H. e. reductimacula Bryk, 1953
• H. e. adana Turner, 1967
• H. e. fuscombei Lamas, 1976
• H. e. tobagoensis Barcant, 1982
• H. e. lichyi Brown & Fernández, 1985
• H. e. cruentus Lamas, 1998