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Post by adubin on Aug 15, 2012 5:08:14 GMT -8
Can somebody please help ID this butterfly? Thanks, ADubin Attachments:
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Post by ladobe on Aug 15, 2012 7:52:39 GMT -8
Looks like Heliconius doris. Would be resident in southern FL, stray elsewhere most likely.
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Post by mantisboy on Aug 15, 2012 13:10:40 GMT -8
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think this occurs naturally in the US. Most likely its either in a butterfly house or escaped from one. It isn't in any of my field guides for butterflies in North America, so if it is a stray it would be a very rare one! (the only Heliconius that I know of in southern FL is H. charithonia)
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Post by Chris Grinter on Aug 15, 2012 13:23:33 GMT -8
The file name of the image says "butterfly world". It's safe to say this image was taken inside a captive enclosure.
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Post by ladobe on Aug 15, 2012 15:14:03 GMT -8
mantisboy -
Field guides are mostly old data copied over and over and not always revised to add what has been confirmed new (and few go past species level). Why they are not of much use to serious Lepidopterists' and more for the less informed. Heliconus is a long lived butterfly, up to as many as nine months and a strong flier. So they can and do establish colonies far removed from their origins if the habitat and conditions allow it. And they stray to others far beyond those that they cannot colonize due the lack of the same. I've collected species as far north as Montana that do not have a generation in the US, came from Mexico or as far away as Central America. Some fueled by weather, some stromng enough fliers to make the tirp unaided. Anyway, self sustaning colonies of H. doris are known and proven in Florida, maybe others as well i am not up on. While H. charithonia is well known in FL, so are other resident Heliconiini that call it home year round.... Agraulis vanillae, Dryas iulia, Dryadula phaetusa, for example, and it gets many influx species from the Caribbean and points west of them.
FYI as well, quite a few species all along the US borders do have regular seasonal colonies that repopulate from across borders if they can't survive as year round residents there. They may or may not be listed in field guides, but they are there and produce at least one or more generations there. I have collected the livestock of many of them myself along the Mexican border to rear, both as ova and larva, and with some species at different times of the season to suggest multiple generations.
Chris -
Good point and one I totally missed. Should have been stated if the picture was taken in a so called butterfly house.
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Post by adubin on Aug 15, 2012 17:25:39 GMT -8
I would like to thank everybody for their response to my butterfly ID request. ADubin
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