The Flickr Heliconiidbutterfly Image Generatr

This beauty which almost looks like it is hovering when you can't see the legs is known as a Sara longwing (Heliconius sara), one of the quite many butterflies which feed on the leaves of the passionflower.

In fact, they have a bit of an arms race going there. The plants developed poison which killed the caterpillars eating the leaves - until they came up with a way to not only be immune to the poison, but in fact store it within themselves, making the caterpillars in turn poisonous.

Caterpillars are no strangers to eating other butterfly eggs so female butterflies are hesitant to lay eggs on leaves which already have eggs on them as those, with a head start, will hatch before their batch and thus most likely eat newer eggs. This fact has led to the pasion flowers having leaves with little dimples on them - which look like eggs and thereby fooling the butterflies that leaf is already taken and therefore looking elsewhere for a spot for their eggs.

Part 1 here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/52751931220/

Part 2 here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/52760545555/

Part 3 here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/52819370073/

in the Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, Columbus, Ohio

I had some real problems figuring out what species of longwing this was when processing the shots and gave up and just put them down as Heliconius sp.

They have been on the harddrive for a while now, and as I'm ready to post it and started adding tags I decided to have another look.

Boom, 30 seconds later I realised this is a false zebra longwing (Heliconius atthis).

With this being a "false", there of course must be a true one as well, and this one mimics the zebra longwing (Heliconius charithonia) - a species I haven't shot. To be perfectly honest, I think this one is the prettier species though.

This beauty is known as a Sara longwing (Heliconius sara), one of the quite many butterflies which feed on the leaves of the passionflower.

In fact, they have a bit of an arms race going there. The plants developed poison which killed the caterpillars eating the leaves - until they came up with a way to not only be immune to the poison, but in fact store it within themselves, making the caterpillars in turn poisonous.

Caterpillars are no strangers to eating other butterfly eggs so female butterflies are hesitant to lay eggs on leaves which already have eggs on them as those, with a head start, will hatch before their batch and thus most likely eat newer eggs. This fact has led to the pasion flowers having leaves with little dimples on them - which look like eggs and thereby fooling the butterflies that leaf is already taken and therefore looking elsewhere for a spot for their eggs.

Part 1 here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/52751931220/

Part 2 here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/52760545555/

This beauty is known as the Sara longwing (Heliconius sara), one of the quite many butterflies which feed on the leaves of the passionflower.

In fact, they have a bit of an arms race going there. The plants developed poison which killed the caterpillars eating the leaves - until they came up with a way to not only be immune to the poison, but in fact store it within themselves, making the caterpillars in turn poisonous.

Caterpillars are no strangers to eating other butterfly eggs so female butterflies are hesitant to lay eggs on leaves which already have eggs on them as those, with a head start, will hatch before their batch and thus most likely eat newer eggs. This fact has led to the pasion flowers having leaves with little dimples on them - which look like eggs and thereby fooling the butterflies that leaf is already taken and therefore looking elsewhere for a spot for their eggs.

Part 1 here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/52751931220/

Part 2 here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/52760545555/

This beauty is known as a sara longwing (Heliconius sara), one of the quite many butterflies which feed on the leaves of the passionflower.

In fact, they have a bit of an arms race going there. The plants developed poison which killed the caterpillars eating the leaves - until they came up with a way to not only be immune to the poison, but in fact store it within themselves, making the caterpillars in turn poisonous.

Caterpillars are no strangers to eating other butterfly eggs so female butterflies are hesitant to lay eggs on leaves which already have eggs on them as those, with a head start, will hatch before their batch and thus most likely eat newer eggs. This fact has led to the pasion flowers having leaves with little dimples on them - which look like eggs and thereby fooling the butterflies that leaf is already taken and therefore looking elsewhere for a spot for their eggs.

Part 1 here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/52751931220/

This beauty is known as a sara longwing (Heliconius sara), one of the quite many butterflies which feed on the leaves of the passionflower.

In fact, they have a bit of an arms race going there. The plants developed poison which killed the caterpillars eating the leaves - until they came up with a way to not only be immune to the poison, but in fact store it within themselves, making the caterpillars in turn poisonous.

Caterpillars are no strangers to eating other butterfly eggs so female butterflies are hesitant to lay eggs on leaves which already have eggs on them as those, with a head start, will hatch before their batch and thus most likely eat newer eggs. This fact has led to the pasion flowers having leaves with little dimples on them - which look like eggs and thereby fooling the butterflies that leaf is already taken and therefore looking elsewhere for a spot for their eggs.

This rather tall butterfly is a sara longwing (Heliconius sara). Their larvae feed on passion flower vines and have evolved through a literal arms race with the plants to be able to feed on those. Like the plants became poisonous - and the caterpillars manage to not be affected and instead store the poison, becoming poisonous themselves.

This one was photographed at the Haga Ocean butterlfy house in Solna, Sweden.

The beautiful butterfly here is a Sara longwing (Heliconius sara), but that's not the cool thing about the shot. Zoom in on the front legs and you'll find one of the more optimistic ants I've ever seen.

It's not exactly a great shot for identifying the ant, but surprisingly good for handheld indoors in natural light. A good friend who knows his way around ants (Hi Jitte!) came up with a maybe in form of it being a pavement ant (Tetramorium sp.) so we'll go with that (as a maybe).

I highly suspect the ant came home without this prize though.

The Sara longwing (Heliconius sara) is a species which can be found in the rainforests of the Amazon basin and as far up north as parts of Mexico. This particular specimen was photographed at the Haga Ocean butterfly house in Stockholm, Sweden though.

This species practice a curious behaviour known as "pupal mating".

The chrysalids of females give of pheromones which attract males who fight for the "best" perch near them. As the female emerges from her chrysalid, one of the males will immediately mate with her.

After this, the female lay her eggs on passion flower vines which contain toxic compounds - but the caterpillars are immune to this and store the toxin, resulting in them becoming poisonous themselves as a protection against predation.

Part 1 can be found here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/51924482554/

The Sara longwing (Heliconius sara) is a species which can be found in the rainforests of the Amazon basin and as far up north as parts of Mexico. This particular specimen was photographed at the Haga Ocean butterfly house in Stockholm, Sweden though.

This species practice a curious behaviour known as "pupal mating".

The chrysalids of females give of pheromones which attract males who fight for the "best" perch near them. As the female emerges from her chrysalid, one of the males will immediately mate with her.

After this, the female lay her eggs on passion flower vines which contain toxic compounds - but the caterpillars are immune to this and store the toxin, resulting in them becoming poisonous themselves as a protection against predation.

Hecale’s Tiger Longwing, Spotted Tiger Longwing Heliconius hecale
© James Laurie
Hecale’s Longwing, also known as Tiger Longwings, have unusually long lifespans and high fecundity rates, which largely result from their augmented diet. Instead of surviving on food stores from the larval stage or solely sipping flower nectar, adult longwing butterflies are avid pollen eaters. These trait make them eminently suitable for butterfly farming and butterfly gardening. Also, Adult Longwings may live for several months, much longer than most butterflies. The longwing butterflies are brightly colored, with long forewings. Once placed in their own family, they are now considered closely related to the fritillaries. Larvae of most longwings feed on passion vines, and this host plant imparts noxious chemicals to the larvae which are carried over to the adult butterflies. This relationship is identical to the monarch butterflies' reliance on its host plant, milkweed, for defense. Predators find these chemicals distasteful and avoid eating the butterflies.

Ferme aux Papillons de Die