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The Heliconius or passion-vine butterflies are tropical butterflies from the new world that show a huge diversity of wing patterns. They have undergone rapid speciation and divergence, and also show an amazing amount of convergence in wing pattern due to mimcry. Evolutionary biologists have studied these butterflies for over 150 years, and we now know a great deal about their ecology, systematics and evolution. This web site offers an introduction to their biology and current research projects studying different aspects of their genetics and evolution. We hope you like them as much as we do!

The genome sequence for Heliconius melpomene is available from LepBase. You might also want to visit the Tree of Life Heliconius pages. Butterflies of America and Michel Cast’s Heliconius pages are also useful resources for species identification.

Recent Research Publications:

de Castro, É. C. P., Zagrobelny, M., Cardoso, M. Z., & Bak, S. (2018). The arms race between heliconiine butterflies and Passiflora plants - new insights on an ancient subject. Biological Reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, 93(1), 555–573. https://doi.org/10.1111/brv.12357

Smith, G., Kelly, J. E., Macias-Muñoz, A., Butts, C. T., Martin, R. W., & Briscoe, A. D. (2018). Evolutionary and structural analyses uncover a role for solvent interactions in the diversification of cocoonases in butterflies. Proceedings. Biological Sciences, 285(1870). https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2017.2037

Rastas, P. (2017). Lep-MAP3: robust linkage mapping even for low-coverage whole genome sequencing data. Bioinformatics (Oxford, England), 33(23), 3726–3732. https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/btx494

Macias-Muñoz, A., McCulloch, K. J., & Briscoe, A. D. (2017). Copy Number Variation and Expression Analysis Reveals a Nonorthologous Pinta Gene Family Member Involved in Butterfly Vision. Genome Biology and Evolution, 9(12), 3398–3412. https://doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evx230

Wilts, B. D., Vey, A. J. M., Briscoe, A. D., & Stavenga, D. G. (2017). Longwing (Heliconius) butterflies combine a restricted set of pigmentary and structural coloration mechanisms. BMC Evolutionary Biology, 17(1), 226. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12862-017-1073-1

Mazo-Vargas, A., Concha, C., Livraghi, L., Massardo, D., Wallbank, R. W. R., Zhang, L., … Martin, A. (2017). Macroevolutionary shifts of WntA function potentiate butterfly wing-pattern diversity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 114(40), 10701–10706. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1708149114

Enciso-Romero, J., Pardo-Díaz, C., Martin, S. H., Arias, C. F., Linares, M., McMillan, W. O., … Salazar, C. (2017). Evolution of novel mimicry rings facilitated by adaptive introgression in tropical butterflies. Molecular Ecology, 26(19), 5160–5172. https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.14277

Holmes, I. A., Grundler, M. R., & Davis Rabosky, A. R. (2017). Predator Perspective Drives Geographic Variation in Frequency-Dependent Polymorphism. The American Naturalist, 190(4), E78–E93. https://doi.org/10.1086/693159

McCulloch, K. J., Yuan, F., Zhen, Y., Aardema, M. L., Smith, G., Llorente-Bousquets, J., … Briscoe, A. D. (2017). Sexual Dimorphism and Retinal Mosaic Diversification following the Evolution of a Violet Receptor in Butterflies. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 34(9), 2271–2284. https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msx163

Mann, F., Vanjari, S., Rosser, N., Mann, S., Dasmahapatra, K. K., Corbin, C., … Schulz, S. (2017). The Scent Chemistry of Heliconius Wing Androconia. Journal of Chemical Ecology, 43(9), 843–857. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10886-017-0867-3

Chouteau, M., Llaurens, V., Piron-Prunier, F., & Joron, M. (2017). Polymorphism at a mimicry supergene maintained by opposing frequency-dependent selection pressures. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 114(31), 8325–8329. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1702482114

Zhao, Q., Ma, D., Vasseur, L., & You, M. (2017). Segmental duplications: evolution and impact among the current Lepidoptera genomes. BMC Evolutionary Biology, 17(1), 161. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12862-017-1007-y

Gopinath, G., Srikeerthana, K., Tomar, A., Sekhar, S. M. C., & Arunkumar, K. P. (2017). RNA sequencing reveals a complete but an unconventional type of dosage compensation in the domestic silkworm Bombyx mori. Royal Society Open Science, 4(7), 170261. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.170261

Mérot, C., Salazar, C., Merrill, R. M., Jiggins, C. D., & Joron, M. (2017). What shapes the continuum of reproductive isolation? Lessons from Heliconius butterflies. Proceedings. Biological Sciences, 284(1856). https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2017.0335

McCulloch, K. J., Yuan, F., Zhen, Y., Aardema, M. L., Smith, G., Llorente-Bousquets, J., … Briscoe, A. D. (2017). Sexual Dimorphism and Retinal Mosaic Diversification Following the Evolution of a Violet Receptor in Butterflies. Molecular Biology and Evolution. https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msx163

Finkbeiner, S. D., Fishman, D. A., Osorio, D., & Briscoe, A. D. (2017). Ultraviolet and yellow reflectance but not fluorescence is important for visual discrimination of conspecifics by Heliconius erato. The Journal of Experimental Biology, 220(Pt 7), 1267–1276. https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.153593

Silva, D. S., Barp, E. A., Kucharski, L. C. R., & Moreira, G. R. P. (2017). Sensing the Plant Surface Prior to Feeding and Oviposition: Differences in External Ultrastructure and Function Among Tarsi of Heliconius erato. Neotropical Entomology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13744-017-0508-0

Jiggins, C. D., Wallbank, R. W. R., & Hanly, J. J. (2017). Waiting in the wings: what can we learn about gene co-option from the diversification of butterfly wing patterns? Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences, 372(1713). https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2015.0485

Shaak, S. G., & Counterman, B. A. (2017). High warning colour polymorphism in Heliconius hybrid zone roosts. Ecological Entomology, n/a-n/a. https://doi.org/10.1111/een.12386

Pinharanda, A., Martin, S. H., Barker, S. L., Davey, J. W., & Jiggins, C. D. (2017). The comparative landscape of duplications in Heliconius melpomene and Heliconius cydno. Heredity, 118(1), 78–87. https://doi.org/10.1038/hdy.2016.107

Dalbosco Dell’Aglio, D., Akkaynak, D., McMillan, W. O., & Jiggins, C. D. (2017). Estimating the age of Heliconius butterflies from calibrated photographs. PeerJ, 5, e3821. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.3821

Darragh, K., Vanjari, S., Mann, F., Gonzalez-Rojas, M. F., Morrison, C. R., Salazar, C., … Jiggins, C. D. (2017). Male sex pheromone components in Heliconius butterflies released by the androconia affect female choice. PeerJ, 5, e3953. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.3953

Van Belleghem, S. M., Rastas, P., Papanicolaou, A., Martin, S. H., Arias, C. F., Supple, M. A., … Papa, R. (2017). Complex modular architecture around a simple toolkit of wing pattern genes. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 1. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-016-0052

Montgomery, S. H., & Merrill, R. M. (2016). Divergence in brain composition during the early stages of ecological specialisation in Heliconius butterflies. Journal of Evolutionary Biology, n/a-n/a. https://doi.org/10.1111/jeb.13027

Nadeau, N. J. (2016). Genes controlling mimetic colour pattern variation in butterflies. Current Opinion in Insect Science, 17, 24–31. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cois.2016.05.013

Lewis, J. J., van der Burg, K. R. L., Mazo-Vargas, A., & Reed, R. D. (2016). ChIP-Seq-Annotated Heliconius erato Genome Highlights Patterns of cis-Regulatory Evolution in Lepidoptera. Cell Reports, 16(11), 2855–2863. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2016.08.042

Yu, Q.-Y., Fang, S.-M., Zhang, Z., & Jiggins, C. D. (2016). The transcriptome response of Heliconius melpomene larvae to a novel host plant. Molecular Ecology, 25, 4850–4865. https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.13826

Mérot, C., Le Poul, Y., Théry, M., & Joron, M. (2016). Refining mimicry: phenotypic variation tracks the local optimum. Journal of Animal Ecology, 85(4), 1056–1069. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.12521

Nadeau, N. J., Pardo-Diaz, C., Whibley, A., Supple, M. A., Saenko, S. V., Wallbank, R. W. R., … Jiggins, C. D. (2016). The gene cortex controls mimicry and crypsis in butterflies and moths. Nature, 534(7605), 106–110. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature17961

Dell’aglio, D. D., Stevens, M., & Jiggins, C. D. (2016). Avoidance of an aposematically coloured butterfly by wild birds in a tropical forest. Ecological Entomology, 41(5), 627–632. https://doi.org/10.1111/een.12335

McCulloch, K. J., Osorio, D., & Briscoe, A. D. (2016). Sexual dimorphism in the compound eye of Heliconius erato: a nymphalid butterfly with at least five spectral classes of photoreceptor. Journal of Experimental Biology, jeb.136523. https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.136523

Martin, S. H., Möst, M., Palmer, W. J., Salazar, C., McMillan, W. O., Jiggins, F. M., & Jiggins, C. D. (2016). Natural selection and genetic diversity in the butterfly Heliconius melpomene. Genetics, 203(1), 525–541. https://doi.org/10.1534/genetics.115.183285

Montgomery, S. H., Merrill, R. M., & Ott, S. R. (2016). Brain composition in Heliconius butterflies, post-eclosion growth and experience-dependent neuropil plasticity. The Journal of Comparative Neurology. https://doi.org/10.1002/cne.23993

Chouteau, M., Arias, M., & Joron, M. (2016). Warning signals are under positive frequency-dependent selection in nature. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113(8), 2164–2169. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1519216113

Platt, R. N., Blanco-Berdugo, L., & Ray, D. A. (2016). Accurate Transposable Element Annotation Is Vital When Analyzing New Genome Assemblies. Genome Biology and Evolution, 8(2), 403–410. https://doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evw009

Lohse, K., Chmelik, M., Martin, S. H., & Barton, N. H. (2016). Efficient Strategies for Calculating Blockwise Likelihoods Under the Coalescent. Genetics, 202(2), 775–786. https://doi.org/10.1534/genetics.115.183814

Wallbank, R. W. R., Baxter, S. W., Pardo-Diaz, C., Hanly, J. J., Martin, S. H., Mallet, J., … Jiggins, C. D. (2016). Evolutionary Novelty in a Butterfly Wing Pattern through Enhancer Shuffling. PLoS Biol, 14(1), e1002353. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1002353

Davey, J. W., Chouteau, M., Barker, S. L., Maroja, L., Baxter, S. W., Simpson, F., … Jiggins, C. D. (2016). Major Improvements to the Heliconius melpomene Genome Assembly Used to Confirm 10 Chromosome Fusion Events in 6 Million Years of Butterfly Evolution. G3: Genes|Genomes|Genetics, g3.115.023655. https://doi.org/10.1534/g3.115.023655

Arias, M., Meichanetzoglou, A., Elias, M., Rosser, N., de-Silva, D. L., Nay, B., & Llaurens, V. (2016). Variation in cyanogenic compounds concentration within a Heliconius butterfly community: does mimicry explain everything? BMC Evolutionary Biology, 16, 272. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12862-016-0843-5

Dell’aglio, D. D., Losada, M. E., & Jiggins, C. D. (2016). Butterfly Learning and the Diversification of Plant Leaf Shape. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 4, 81. https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2016.00081

van Schooten, B., Jiggins, C. D., Briscoe, A. D., & Papa, R. (2016). Genome-wide analysis of ionotropic receptors provides insight into their evolution in Heliconius butterflies. BMC Genomics, 17, 254. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12864-016-2572-y

Zhang, W., Dasmahapatra, K. K., Mallet, J., Moreira, G. R. P., & Kronforst, M. R. (2016). Genome-wide introgression among distantly related Heliconius butterfly species. Genome Biology, 17, 25. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13059-016-0889-0

Hoyal Cuthill, J. F., & Charleston, M. (2015). Wing patterning genes and coevolution of Müllerian mimicry in Heliconius butterflies: Support from phylogeography, cophylogeny, and divergence times. Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution, 69(12), 3082–3096. https://doi.org/10.1111/evo.12812

Mérot, C., Frérot, B., Leppik, E., & Joron, M. (2015). Beyond magic traits: Multimodal mating cues in Heliconius butterflies. Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution, 69(11), 2891–2904. https://doi.org/10.1111/evo.12789

Gasmi, L., Boulain, H., Gauthier, J., Hua-Van, A., Musset, K., Jakubowska, A. K., … Drezen, J.-M. (2015). Recurrent Domestication by Lepidoptera of Genes from Their Parasites Mediated by Bracoviruses. PLoS Genet, 11(9), e1005470. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1005470

Rosser, N., Kozak, K. M., Phillimore, A. B., & Mallet, J. (2015). Extensive range overlap between heliconiine sister species: evidence for sympatric speciation in butterflies? BMC Evolutionary Biology, 15(1), 125. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12862-015-0420-3

Merrill, R. M., Dasmahapatra, K. K., Davey, J. W., Dell’Aglio, D. D., Hanly, J. J., Huber, B., … Yu, Q. (2015). The diversification of Heliconius butterflies: What have we learned in 150 years? Journal of Evolutionary Biology. https://doi.org/10.1111/jeb.12672

Harpel, D., Cullen, D. A., Ott, S. R., Jiggins, C. D., & Walters, J. R. (2015). Pollen feeding proteomics: Salivary proteins of the passion flower butterfly, Heliconius melpomene. Insect Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 63, 7–13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ibmb.2015.04.004

Sánchez, A. P., Pardo-Diaz, C., Enciso-Romero, J., Muñoz, A., Jiggins, C. D., Salazar, C., & Linares, M. (2015). An introgressed wing pattern acts as a mating cue. Evolution. https://doi.org/10.1111/evo.12679

A complete list of Heliconius literature is available on our publications page.