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Heliconius timareta Hewitson 1867

Heliconius contiguus Weymer 1890 currently viewed as a subjective junior synonym, Heliconius timareta ab. richardi Riffarth 1900 currently viewed as a subjective junior synonym, Heliconius melpomene timareta ab. virgata Stichel 1902 unavailable - infrasubspecific name, ICZN art. 45.6, Heliconius melpomene timareta f. insolita Riffarth 1907 unavailable - infrasubspecific name, ICZN art. 45.6, Heliconius melpomene timareta f. peregrina Stichel 1909 unavailable - infrasubspecific name, ICZN art. 45.6, Heliconius timareta f. strandi Neustetter 1928 currently viewed as a subjective junior synonym

Andrew V. Z. Brower and Margarita Beltrán
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Containing group: Heliconius

Introduction

Heliconius timareta is a cognate of H. cydno (Brower 1994, 1996; Beltrán et al. 2007), occurring on the eastern slopes of the Andes in Ecuador and northern Peru. It is polymorphic in its color pattern, with individuals exhibiting either no red on the hindwings (nominate form), hindwing rays but no horizontal bar (forms contiguus, virgata, insolita, peregrina), or "complete" red rayed hindwing with the horizontal red bar and red rays (form strandi). There is also variation in the distribution and size of the yellow forewing spots. The various forms are likely to be involved in Müllerian mimicry with H. clysonymus (in the case of the forms with red hindwings) or H. sara/H. doris (in the case of those without).

Geographical Distribution

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Distribution of Heliconius timareta and related species. © Margarita Beltran

Geographical Races

As noted above, there are a number of named sympatric forms that differ in the presence or absence of various red hindwing pattern elements. The names for these are infrasubspecific, and are considered to be synonyms of the nominate geographical race.

References

Beltr?n, M., Jiggins, C. D., Brower, A. V. Z., Bermingham, E. & Mallet, J. 2007 Do pollen feeding, pupal-mating and larval gregariousness have a single origin in Heliconius butterflies? Inferences from multilocus DNA sequence data. Biol. J. Linn. Soc. 92, 221-239.

Brower, A. V. Z. 1994 Phylogeny of Heliconius butterflies inferred from mitochondrial DNA sequences (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae). Mol. Phylogenet. Evol. 3, 159-174.

Brower, A. V. Z. 1996 A new mimetic species of Heliconius (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae), from southeastern Colombia, as revealed by cladistic analysis of mitochondrial DNA sequences. Zool. J. Linn. Soc. 116, 317-332.

Hewitson, W. C. 1867 Descriptions of some new species of diurnal Lepidoptera. Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. Third Series, 5, 561-566.

Lamas, G. 1998 Comentarios taxon?micos y nomenclaturales sobre Heliconiini neotropicales con designaci?n de lectotipos y descripci?n de cuatro subespecies nuevas (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae: Heliconiinae). Rev. Per. Ent. 40, 111-125.

Lamas, G. (ed.) 2004 Atlas of Neotropical Lepidoptera. Checklist: Part 4A Hesperioidea - Papiionoidea. Gainesville: Scientific Publishers/Association of Tropical Lepidoptera.

Title Illustrations
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Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window
Scientific Name Heliconius timareta
Specimen Condition Dead Specimen
View Dorsal
Collection Gerardo Lamas
ToL Image Use creative commons This media file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License - Version 3.0.
Copyright ©
Scientific Name Heliconius timareta
Specimen Condition Dead Specimen
View Ventral
Collection Gerardo Lamas
ToL Image Use creative commons This media file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License - Version 3.0.
Copyright ©
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

Page: Tree of Life Heliconius timareta Hewitson 1867. Heliconius contiguus Weymer 1890 currently viewed as a subjective junior synonym, Heliconius timareta ab. richardi Riffarth 1900 currently viewed as a subjective junior synonym, Heliconius melpomene timareta ab. virgata Stichel 1902 unavailable - infrasubspecific name, ICZN art. 45.6, Heliconius melpomene timareta f. insolita Riffarth 1907 unavailable - infrasubspecific name, ICZN art. 45.6, Heliconius melpomene timareta f. peregrina Stichel 1909 unavailable - infrasubspecific name, ICZN art. 45.6, Heliconius timareta f. strandi Neustetter 1928 currently viewed as a subjective junior synonym. Authored by Andrew V. Z. Brower and Margarita Beltr?n. The TEXT of this page is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License - Version 3.0. Note that images and other media featured on this page are each governed by their own license, and they may or may not be available for reuse. Click on an image or a media link to access the media data window, which provides the relevant licensing information. For the general terms and conditions of ToL material reuse and redistribution, please see the Tree of Life Copyright Policies.

Citing this page:

Brower, Andrew V. Z. and Beltrán, Margarita. 2008. Heliconius timareta Hewitson 1867. Heliconius contiguus Weymer 1890 currently viewed as a subjective junior synonym, Heliconius timareta ab. richardi Riffarth 1900 currently viewed as a subjective junior synonym, Heliconius melpomene timareta ab. virgata Stichel 1902 unavailable - infrasubspecific name, ICZN art. 45.6, Heliconius melpomene timareta f. insolita Riffarth 1907 unavailable - infrasubspecific name, ICZN art. 45.6, Heliconius melpomene timareta f. peregrina Stichel 1909 unavailable - infrasubspecific name, ICZN art. 45.6, Heliconius timareta f. strandi Neustetter 1928 currently viewed as a subjective junior synonym. Version 25 June 2008 (under construction). http://tolweb.org/Heliconius_timareta/72253/2008.06.25 in The Tree of Life Web Project, http://tolweb.org/

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