Heliconius Homepage » Photos

Heliconius doris laying eggs

Chris Jiggins — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 13:57:09 +0000

This is a photo taken by Patricio Salazar of a Heliconius (Laparus?) doris laying eggs on a P. ambigua in the garden of our house in Gamboa, Panama. The ambigua vine has been growing there for many years, but I have never seen eggs laid on it before. H. doris is an interesting species – it is highly polymorphic for wing pattern. Its taxonomy is also controversial, with molecular data clearly placing it within Heliconius, but morphological data suggesting it is a distinct genus (Laparus). Clearly more molecular data will be necessary to resolve this issue. The current data is dominated by information from mitochondrial sequence – it is possible that more nuclear sequence data will give a different answer.

Gregarious larvae

briancounterman — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 10:48:36 +0000

Heliconius doris eggs and larvae decimating a Passiflora in the Kaw Mountains of French Guiana.

Pupation!

Chris Jiggins — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 08:36:43 +0000

This amazing footage of an H. erato pupating is at 10X normal speed. This transformation happens pretty fast in real time.

Many thanks to Kate Raisz and the 42 Degrees North film company who supplied this clip. And thanks Owen for pointing out the correct accreditation.

Pollen load

Chris Jiggins — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:30:04 +0000

Heliconius melpomene aglaope processing a pollen load. Adults may spend several hours processing pollen, producing saliva which is mixed with the pollen to release amino acids and then ingested. The large grains of white pollen in the photo are from Psiguria warcewiczii.

Roosting erato

Chris Jiggins — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 23:39:05 +0000

Heliconius erato petiverana roosting gregariously in the insectary in Gamboa

Gregarious roost

Chris Jiggins — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 23:38:28 +0000

Heliconius erato petiverana roosting gregariously.

Hanging from one another

Chris Jiggins — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 23:28:35 +0000

A Heliconius erato petiverana female roosting, hanging from the wings of another. Note the characteristic roosting posture of females (both individuals here are female), with their hindwings covering the forewing band.

Artificial feeders

Chris Jiggins — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 15:53:02 +0000

Normally, a natural background is nice, but artificial feeders are quite colourful…. Heliconius erato erato

Laying on biflora

Chris Jiggins — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 15:27:25 +0000

Heliconius erato petiverana laying an egg on P. biflora.

Heliconius ismenius courting 2

Chris Jiggins — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 14:32:25 +0000

Another photo of this persistent H. ismenius male. The female is raising her abdomen up, which is probably a rejection behaviour – at least it certainly prevents the male from getting to her abdomen from the side, and also probably releases pheromones from scent glands in the female’s abdomen (which may be anti-aphrodisiac).