Red postman
Heliconius erato, or the red postman, is one of about 40 neotropical species of butterfly belonging to the genus Heliconius. It is also commonly known as the small postman, the red passion flower butterfly, or the crimson-patched longwing. It was described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae.
H. erato exhibits Müllerian mimicry with other Heliconius butterflies such as Heliconius melpomene in order to warn common predators against attacking, which contributes to its surprising longevity. It also has a unique mating ritual involving the transfer of anti-aphrodisiacs from males to females.
Recent field work has confirmed the relative abundance of this butterfly.
H. erato is a neotropical species, found from southern Texas to northern Argentina and Paraguay, and resides on the edges of tropical rainforests. It is philopatric, having a particularly restricted home range. In areas of dense population in Trinidad, some home ranges are only separated by 30 yards, but H. erato rarely travels to neighboring home ranges.
The red postman returns to a communal roost every night that contains members of the same species and of other heliconids. The roost is typically situated about 2–10 meters from the ground on twigs and tendrils and is occupied by a small group of butterflies. Adults who have just emerged from the pupa typically roost alone for a few days before roosting with others.
The red postman has been observed to live in the wild for at least 20 days. In captivity, they live for more than a month and have been recorded to live up to 186 days. This is significantly longer than other temperate and tropical butterflies, which live for a month at best in captivity. H. erato's longevity can be explained by its benign climate and undoubted unpalatability, as well as the benefits from digesting pollen.
Males scout out females during the day and often mate with females as they emerge from the chrysalis. Many males sit at female pupae waiting for them to emerge and are undisturbed by any commotion. Females mate with only one male at a time and can reproduce throughout life. All subspecies can potentially mate across subspecies, but interspecies offspring are not common. These offspring only survive well in extremely specific hybrid regions and are unsuccessful elsewhere because their unusual recombinant phenotype attracts more predators.
