Heliconius antiochus
Margarita Beltrán
Characteristics
Early stages: Eggs are yellow and approximately 1.1 x 0.8 mm (h x w). Females usually place 5 to 40 eggs on growing shoots of the host plant. Mature larvae have a yellow body with black scoli and head; length is around 1.2 cm. Caterpillars are gregarious (Brown, 1981)
Geographical Distribution
Heliconius antiochus is disributed from Panama to the Amazon. The map below shows an approximate representation of the geographic distribution of this species. The original data used to draw these maps is derived from Brown (1979) which is available at Keith S. Brown Jr. (1979). Ecological Geography and Evolution in Neotropical Forests .
Distribution of Heliconius antiochus and Heliconius hewitsoni. © 2002 Margarita Beltran.
Habits
H. antiochus occurs from sea level to 1,000 m in riparian forest. Usually individuals fly slowly and in the canopy. 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. antiochus larvae feed primarily on plants from the genus Passiflora, subgenus Astrophea (Brown, 1981).
References
Brown K. S. 1981 The Biology of Heliconius and Related Genera. Annual Review of Entomology 26, 427-456.
Linnaeus C. 1767. Systema naturae. Editio duodecima reformata. Holmiae, Laurentius Salvius. 1(2): [ii] , 533-1328 , [36] pp.
Title Illustrations
| Scientific Name | Heliconius antiochus |
|---|---|
| Location | Rondonia, Brazil |
| Specimen Condition | Live Specimen |
| Source | Anitochus Longwing |
| Source Collection | Neotropical Butterflies |
| Copyright | © 2002 Will and Gill Carter |
About This Page
University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
Correspondence regarding this page should be directed to Margarita Beltrán at
Page copyright © 2006
Page: Tree of Life
Heliconius antiochus .
Authored by
Margarita Beltrán.
The TEXT of this page is licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License - Version 3.0. Note that images and other media
featured on this page are each governed by their own license, and they may or may not be available
for reuse. Click on an image or a media link to access the media data window, which provides the
relevant licensing information. For the general terms and conditions of ToL material reuse and
redistribution, please see the Tree of Life Copyright
Policies.
- First online 18 February 2007
- Content changed 12 August 2008
Citing this page:
Beltrán, Margarita. 2008. Heliconius antiochus . Version 12 August 2008 (under construction). http://tolweb.org/Heliconius_antiochus/72945/2008.08.12 in The Tree of Life Web Project, http://tolweb.org/
