Heliconius sapho
Andrew V. Z. Brower and Margarita Beltrán
Introduction
Heliconius sapho is a member of the pupal-mating clade of Heliconius butterflies. It occurs in Central and northwestern South America to the west of the Andes. It is a Müllerian mimic with H. cydno, which exhibits parallel geographical variation in the mimetic wing pattern.
Characteristics
H. sapho has iridescent black wings with a variety of white bands on fore- or fore and hindwings. It can be easily distinguished from its co-mimic H. cydno by the ventral surface of the hindwings, which exhibit basal red rays and no brown bars.
Geographical Distribution
Distribution of Heliconius sapho © 2002 Margarita Beltran.
Geographical Races
Heliconius sapho exhibits several discrete geographical races over its range, as follows:
- Heliconius sapho leuce Doubleday 1847. southern Mexico to western Panama (Atlantic slope).
- Heliconius sapho sapho (Drury 1782). Panama Canal Zone to northern Colombia.
- Heliconius sapho chocoensis K. S. Brown & Benson 1975. northwestern Colombia (Chocó).
- Heliconius sapho candidus K. S. Brown 1976. Pacific slope of southern Colombia and Ecuador.
H. hewitsoni, which occurs on the Pacific slope of Costa Rica and western Panama is closely-related to H. sapho and considered a race/subspecies of the latter by Lamas (2004).
References
Brown, K. S., Jr. 1979 Ecologia Geogr?fica e Evolu??o nas Florestas Neotropicais. Campinas, S?o Paulo, Brasil: Universidade Estadual de Campinas.
Lamas, G. (ed.) 2004 Atlas of Neotropical Lepidoptera. Checklist: Part 4A Hesperioidea - Papiionoidea. Gainesville: Scientific Publishers/Association of Tropical Lepidoptera.
Title Illustrations
| Scientific Name | Heliconius sapho |
|---|---|
| Specimen Condition | Live Specimen |
| Source | Heliconius cydno |
| Source Collection | Flickr |
| ToL Image Use |
 This media file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License - Version 2.0.
|
| Copyright | © 2002 Wes Kalinowski |
About This Page
Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, USA
University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
Correspondence regarding this page should be directed to Andrew V. Z. Brower at and Margarita Beltr?n at
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Heliconius sapho .
Authored by
Andrew V. Z. Brower and Margarita Beltr?n.
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- First online 18 February 2007
- Content changed 10 June 2008
Citing this page:
Brower, Andrew V. Z. and Beltrán, Margarita. 2008. Heliconius sapho . Version 10 June 2008 (under construction). http://tolweb.org/Heliconius_sapho/72940/2008.06.10 in The Tree of Life Web Project, http://tolweb.org/
