Heliconius eleuchia
Margarita Beltrán and Chris Jiggins
Characteristics
Early stages: Eggs are yellow or white and approximately 1 x 0.8 mm (h x w). Females usually place 20 to 50 eggs on growing shoots of the host plant. Mature larvae have a yellow body, with black scoli and head; length is around 0.3 cm. Caterpillars are gregarious (Brown, 1981).
Geographical Distribution
Heliconius eleuchia is distributed from Costa Rica to Ecuador. This map shows an approximate representation of the geographic distribution of this species. The original data used to draw these maps are derived from Brown (1979) which is available at Keith S. Brown Jr. (1979). Ecological Geography and Evolution in Neotropical Forests
Distribution of Heliconius congener and Heliconius eleuchia. © 2002 Margarita Beltran.
Habits
H. eleuchia occurs from sea level to 2,000 m in riparian forest. Usually individuals fly rapidly and in the lowerstory. The males sit on female pupae a day before emergence, and mating occurs the next morning, before the female has completely eclosed. Adults roost at night in large groups on twigs or tendrils over water (Brown, 1981).
Host plant: H. eleuchia larvae feed primarily on plants from the genus Passiflora, subgenus Astrophea (Brown, 1981). In western Ecuador this species feeds mainly on Passiflora macrophyllum.
References
Brown K. S. 1981 The Biology of Heliconius and Related Genera. Annual Review of Entomology 26, 427-456.
Hewitson W. C. 1854 Illustrations of new species of exotic butterflies, selected chiefly from the collections of W. Wilson Saunders and William C. Hewitson. London, John Van Voorst. 1(11): [15-16], [27-28], pls. [8], [14] (21 July 1854)
Title Illustrations
| Scientific Name | Heliconius eleuchia |
|---|---|
| Location | Captive live butterfly photographed at Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, Chicago, Illinois, USA |
| Specimen Condition | Live Specimen |
| Image Use |
 This media file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License - Version 2.5.
|
| Copyright |
© Bruce Marlin
|
About This Page
University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
Chris Jiggins
University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
Correspondence regarding this page should be directed to Margarita Beltrán at and Chris Jiggins at
Page copyright © 2010 and Chris Jiggins
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Heliconius eleuchia .
Authored by
Margarita Beltrán and Chris Jiggins.
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- First online 18 February 2007
- Content changed 13 August 2008
Citing this page:
Beltrán, Margarita and Chris Jiggins. 2008. Heliconius eleuchia . Version 13 August 2008 (under construction). http://tolweb.org/Heliconius_eleuchia/72938/2008.08.13 in The Tree of Life Web Project, http://tolweb.org/
