Heliconius demeter, the Demeter longwing, is a butterfly of the family Nymphalidae. It was described by Otto Staudinger in 1897. It is found in the Northern and Eastern part of the Amazon basin, from Guyana to Northern Brazil and Peru.[1] The habitat consists of sandy rainforests.
| Heliconius demeter | |
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| Dorsal view | |
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| Ventral view | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Lepidoptera |
| Family: | Nymphalidae |
| Genus: | Heliconius |
| Species: | H. demeter
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| Binomial name | |
| Heliconius demeter Staudinger, 1897
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| Synonyms | |
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The larvae are solitary and feed on Dilkea (Passifloraceae) species. They reach a length of about 20 mm.[1]
Adult H. demeter are distinguished morphologically from their sister species Heliconius eratosignis because they have a yellow streak on the base of the forewing costa underside;[1] in contrast, Heliconius eratosignis has a solid orange basal costal margin on the underside of the forewing. Brown & Benson in 1975 recognized these differences but argued that the two forms were subspecies of the same species. They also recorded both Heliconius eratosignis gregarious and H. demeter solitary larvae in their paper.[2] The Tree of Life web project has yet to recognize Heliconius eratosignis as a separate species, but shows an image of a male Heliconius eratosignis from Peru under the description of H. demeter.[3]
Etymology
editSubspecies
edit- H. d. demeter Staudinger, 1897 (Peru, Brazil: Amazonas)
- H. d. angeli Neukirchen, 1997 (Peru)
- H. d. beebei Turner, 1966 (Guyana)
- H. d. bouqueti Nöldner, 1901 (French Guiana)
- H. d. joroni Lamas & Rosser, 2019 (Peru)[1]
- H. d. karinae Neukirchen, 1990 (Brazil: Pará)
- H. d. neildi Neukirchen, 1997 (Ecuador)
- H. d. terrasanta Brown & Benson, 1975 (Brazil: Pará)
- H. d. titan Neukirchen, 1995 (Brazil: Amazonas)
- H. d. turneri Brown & Benson, 1975 (Brazil: Amazonas)
- H. d. zikani Brown & Benson, 1975 (Brazil: Amazonas)
References
edit- ^ a b c d Rosser, Neil; Freitas, André V. L.; Huertas, Blanca; Joron, Mathieu; Lamas, Gerardo; Mérot, Claire; Simpson, Fraser; Willmott, Keith R.; Mallet, James; Dasmahapatra, Kanchon K. (2019). "Cryptic speciation associated with geographic and ecological divergence in two Amazonian Heliconius butterflies". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 186 (1): 233–249. doi:10.1093/zoolinnean/zly046.
- ^ Brown, K.S., & Benson, W.W. 1975. The heliconians of Brazil (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae). Part VI. Aspects of the biology and ecology of Heliconius demeter with description of four new subspecies. Bulletin of the Allyn Museum 26:1-19. https://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/files/7213/9455/2950/McGuire-AME026.pdf
- ^ a b Beltrán, Margarita. 2010. Heliconius demeter. http://tolweb.org/Heliconius_demeter/72946
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