The Heliconiinae, commonly called heliconians or longwings, are a

subfamily In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end botanical subfamily names with "-oideae", and zo ...

of the

brush-footed butterflies The Nymphalidae are the largest family of butterflies, with more than 6,000 species distributed throughout most of the world. Belonging to the superfamily Papilionoidea, they are usually medium-sized to large butterflies. Most species have ...

(

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Nymphalidae). They can be divided into 45–50

genera Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family as used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In binomial nomenclature, the genus name forms the first part of the binomial s ...

and were sometimes treated as a separate family Heliconiidae within the

Papilionoidea Butterflies are winged insects from the lepidopteran superfamily Papilionoidea, characterized by large, often brightly coloured wings that often fold together when at rest, and a conspicuous, fluttering flight. The oldest butterfly fossi ...

. The colouration is predominantly reddish and black, and though of varying wing shape, the forewings are always elongated tipwards, hence the common name. Most longwings are found in the

Tropics The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the equator, where the sun may shine directly overhead. This contrasts with the temperate or polar regions of Earth, where the Sun can never be directly overhead. This is because of Earth's ax ...

, particularly in

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

; only the

Argynnini Argynnini is a Tribe (biology), tribe of butterfly, butterflies in the subfamily Heliconiinae, containing some of the fritillaries. This group has roughly 100 species worldwide and roughly 30 in North America. Systematics This group has also be ...

are quite diverse in the

Holarctic The Holarctic realm is a biogeographic realm that comprises the majority of habitats found throughout the continents in the Northern Hemisphere. It corresponds to the floristic Boreal Kingdom. It includes both the Nearctic zoogeographical reg ...

. Especially

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the equator, where the sun may shine directly overhead. This contrasts with the temperate or polar regions of Earth, where the Sun can never be directly overhead. This is because of Earth's ax ...

species feed on

poisonous plants Plants that cause illness or death after consuming them are referred to as poisonous plants. The toxins in poisonous plants affect herbivores, and deter them from consuming the plants. Plants cannot move to escape their predators, so they must ...

, characteristically

Passifloraceae The Passifloraceae are a family of flowering plants, containing about 750 species classified in around 27 genera. They include trees, shrubs, lianas, and climbing plants, and are mostly found in tropical regions. The family takes its name from t ...

vines, as

larva A larva (; : larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into their next life stage. Animals with indirect development such as insects, some arachnids, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase ...

e, becoming poisonous themselves. The adult butterflies announce their acquired toxicity with strong

aposematic Aposematism is the Advertising in biology, advertising by an animal, whether terrestrial or marine, to potential predation, predators that it is not worth attacking or eating. This unprofitability may consist of any defenses which make the pr ...

colours, warning off would-be

predator Predation is a biological interaction in which one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common List of feeding behaviours, feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation ...

s. There are several famous cases of Batesian and

Müllerian mimicry Müllerian mimicry is a natural phenomenon in which two or more well-defended species, often foul-tasting and sharing common predators, have come to mimicry, mimic each other's honest signal, honest aposematism, warning signals, to their mutuali ...

both within this group and with other butterflies. Other commonly seen food plants are

Fabaceae Fabaceae () or Leguminosae,International Code of Nomen ...

(which also contain several toxic species), and particularly among northerly species of

Violaceae Violaceae is a family of flowering plants established in 1802, consisting of about 1000 species in about 25 genera. It takes its name from the genus '' Viola'', the violets and pansies. Older classifications such as the Cronquist system plac ...

.Silva-Brandão ''et al.'' (2008)

Systematics

Four or five

tribe The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide use of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. The definition is contested, in part due to conflict ...

s are generally recognized in the Heliconiinae. There have been numerous attempts to sort out the

phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics () is the study of the evolutionary history of life using observable characteristics of organisms (or genes), which is known as phylogenetic inference. It infers the relationship among organisms based on empirical dat ...

sequence and delimitation of these, but while the former has made good progress, the latter has hitherto only achieved limited results. Several phylogenies (and corresponding

taxonomic 280px, Generalized scheme of taxonomy Taxonomy is a practice and science concerned with classification or categorization. Typically, there are two parts to it: the development of an underlying scheme of classes (a taxonomy) and the allocation ...

adjustments) have been proposed, but though looking reasonable each and every one of them is only weakly supported. Even

cladistic Cladistics ( ; from Ancient Greek 'branch') is an approach to biological classification in which organisms are categorized in groups ("clades") based on hypotheses of most recent common ancestry. The evidence for hypothesized relationships is ...

analyses of the same type of data often yield contradicting results depending on the exact method of evaluation. Ultimately, the reason is that just a fraction of the

evolution Evolution is the change in the heritable Phenotypic trait, characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, re ...

ary diversity of Heliconiinae has been sampled. What appears fairly certain is that the

and

Vagrantini Vagrantini is a tribe of butterflies in the subfamily Heliconiinae The Heliconiinae, commonly called heliconians or longwings, are a subfamily of the brush-footed butterflies (family (biology), family Nymphalidae). They can be divided into 4 ...

are closer relatives than any other two tribes of Heliconiinae. The

Acraeini The Acraeini are a tribe (biology), tribe of butterflies of the subfamily Heliconiinae in the family Nymphalidae. Genera The recognized genera are: Tree of Life * ''Abananote'' Potts, 1943 * ''Acraea (genus), Acraea'' Fabricius, 1807 – acr ...

and

Heliconiini Heliconiini is a tribe of butterflies in the subfamily Heliconiinae, also known as the passion-vine butterflies. This group has roughly 100 species and subspecies distributed primarily in the Neotropics.basal lineages, but the exact placement of each respective to the other tribes cannot be considered well resolved at all. Argynnis paphia male Weinsberg 20070722 1

Argynnis paphia male Weinsberg 20070722 1

Some tribes are distributed among several

continent A continent is any of several large geographical regions. Continents are generally identified by convention (norm), convention rather than any strict criteria. A continent could be a single large landmass, a part of a very large landmass, as ...

s, resulting in a confusing

phylogeography Phylogeography is the study of the historical processes that may be responsible for the past to present geographic distributions of genealogical lineages. This is accomplished by considering the geographic distribution of individuals in light of ge ...

pattern. But as it seems, the apparent contradictions between

systematics Systematics is the study of the diversification of living forms, both past and present, and the relationships among living things through time. Relationships are visualized as evolutionary trees (synonyms: phylogenetic trees, phylogenies). Phy ...

and

biogeography Biogeography is the study of the species distribution, distribution of species and ecosystems in geography, geographic space and through evolutionary history of life, geological time. Organisms and biological community (ecology), communities o ...

are due to the premature classifications based on insufficient

taxon In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; : taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular name and ...

sampling. With studies becoming more and more comprehensive, the apparent anomalies seem to sort themselves out at least for the most part. For example, the confusing distribution pattern of ''

Acraea Acraea (Ancient Greek: means 'of the heights' from ''akraios'') was a name that had several uses in Greek and Roman mythology. * Acraea, the naiad daughter of the river-god Asterion near Mycenae, who together with her sisters Euboea and Prosy ...

'' in the wide circumscription is apparently simply due to the bulk of this morphologically conservative group warranting recognition as genus '' Telchinia'' – it stands to note that this group has on occasion been allied with ''

Actinote ''Actinote'' is a genus of butterflies from South America of the subfamily Heliconiinae in the family Nymphalidae. (For taxonomic problems regarding this group, see ''Acraea (genus), Acraea''.) Male, Males interact with or without physical contac ...

'' rather than ''Acraea'', and this indeed appears to be correct. In addition, the genus ''

Pardopsis ''Pardopsis'' is a monotypic butterfly genus in the family Nymphalidae. Its only species is ''Pardopsis punctatissima'', the polka dot. It is found in the fynbos of South Africa, in lowland and Afromontane forest, and grassland from Van Stadens ...

'', often placed in the Acraeini, does almost certainly not belong there; it is now tentatively placed in the Argynnini. The relationships of the genus ''

Cethosia ''Cethosia'', commonly called the lacewings, is a genus of butterflies of the subfamily Heliconiinae in the family Nymphalidae. They are found mainly in southeastern Asia as far south as Australia. Species Listed alphabetically: ** ''Cethosia hy ...

'' (sometimes treated as a tribe of its own) are even more mysterious, and it is likely that some other genera will eventually also be moved to a different tribe as they are studied in detail. Some, like the Argynnini ''

Argynnis ''Argynnis'' is a genus of butterflies in the family Nymphalidae, one of several groups known as "fritillaries". This genus has three subgenera: ''Argynnis'', ''Fabriciana'', and ''Speyeria''. The species of the subgenera ''Argynnis'' and ''Fabr ...

'', ''

Boloria ''Boloria'' is a brush-footed butterfly (Nymphalidae) genus. ''Clossiana'' is usually included with it nowadays, though some authors still consider it distinct and it seems to warrant recognition as a subgenus at least. Species Listed alphabetic ...

'' and ''

Issoria ''Issoria'' is a genus of butterflies in the family Nymphalidae commonly found in the Palearctic realm, Africa, and South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, w ...

'', might be overlumped and non-

monophyletic In biological cladistics for the classification of organisms, monophyly is the condition of a taxonomic grouping being a clade – that is, a grouping of organisms which meets these criteria: # the grouping contains its own most recent co ...

and thus some genera presently usually considered

junior synonym In taxonomy, the scientific classification of living organisms, a synonym is an alternative scientific name for the accepted scientific name of a taxon. The botanical and zoological codes of nomenclature treat the concept of synonymy differently. ...

s of them might eventually be validated like ''Telchinia''.

Genera

Genera are presented in the presumed

sequence. Notable

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

are also given if no genus article exists.Based on Wahlberg

008 008, OO8, O08, or 0O8 may refer to: * "008", a fictional 00 Agent In Ian Fleming's James Bond novels and the derived films, the 00 Section of MI6 is considered the secret service's elite. A 00 (pronounced "Double O") is a field agent who ho ...

Silva-Brandão et al. (2008). See also Savela (2008) for further sources.

Boisduval, 1833 * ''

Abananote ''Abananote'' is a genus of butterflies from north-western South America of the subfamily Heliconiinae in the family Nymphalidae. For taxonomic problems regarding this group, see ''Acraea Acraea (Ancient Greek: means 'of the heights' from ''a ...

'' Potts, 1943 * ''

'' Hübner, 1819 * ''

Altinote ''Altinote'' is a genus of butterflies from South America of the subfamily Heliconiinae in the family Nymphalidae. For taxonomic problems regarding this group, see ''Acraea''. Species Listed alphabetically within groups:Glassberg, Jeffrey. (2007 ...

'' Potts, 1943 * ''

'' Fabricius, 1807 (

paraphyletic Paraphyly is a taxonomic term describing a grouping that consists of the grouping's last common ancestor and some but not all of its descendant lineages. The grouping is said to be paraphyletic ''with respect to'' the excluded subgroups. In co ...

) * ''

Bematistes ''Bematistes'' is a genus of butterflies in the family Nymphalidae. The genus is often included in ''Acraea''. Species *''umbra'' species group: **'' Bematistes adrasta'' (Weymer, 1892) **'' Bematistes aganice'' (Hewitson, 1852) **'' Bematistes ...

'' Hemming, 1935 * ''

'' Fabricius, 1807 – lacewings * '' Miyana'' Fruhstorfer, 1914 (tentatively placed here)

Heliconiini Heliconiini is a tribe of butterflies in the subfamily Heliconiinae, also known as the passion-vine butterflies. This group has roughly 100 species and subspecies distributed primarily in the Neotropics.Agraulis'' Boisduval & Le Conte, 1835 Caterpillar-Both-02 crop

* '' Dione'' Hübner, 1819 * '' Dryadula'' Michner, 1942 – banded orange * '' Dryas'' Hübner,

807 __NOTOC__ Year 807 ( DCCCVII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar, the 807th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 807th year of the 1st millennium, the 7th year of the 9th century, and the ...

/small> – Julia heliconian * ''

Eueides ''Eueides'' is a genus of butterflies of the subfamily Heliconiinae in the family Nymphalidae. Species Listed alphabetically:Heliconius ''Heliconius'' comprises a colorful and widespread genus of brush-footed butterflies commonly known as the longwings or heliconians. This genus is distributed throughout the tropical and subtropical regions of the New World, from South America ...

'' Kluk, 1780 – brush-foot butterflies * ''

Philaethria ''Philaethria'' is a genus of New World butterflies of the subfamily Heliconiinae in the family Nymphalidae. Species The following is a list of species classified under ''Philaethria'':Podotricha ''Podotricha'' is a genus of butterflies of the subfamily Heliconiinae in the family Nymphalidae The Nymphalidae are the largest family of butterflies, with more than 6,000 species distributed throughout most of the world. Belonging to ...

'' Michener, 1942 Butterfly vindula arsinoe

Pinratana & Eliot, 1996 * ''

Lachnoptera ''Lachnoptera'' is a genus of butterflies in the family Nymphalidae The Nymphalidae are the largest family of butterflies, with more than 6,000 species distributed throughout most of the world. Belonging to the superfamily Papilionoid ...

'' Doubleday, 1847 * ''

Phalanta ''Phalanta'' is a genus of butterflies, called leopards, in the family Nymphalidae. The genus ranges from Africa to northern Australia. Species *'' Phalanta alcippe'' (Stoll, 782 – small leopard *'' Phalanta eurytis'' (Doubleday, 847 __N ...

'' Horsfield, 1829 * ''

Smerina ''Smerina'' is a genus of butterflies of the subfamily Heliconiinae in the family Nymphalidae. It contains only one species, ''Smerina manoro'', which is found on Madagascar Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island ...

'' Hewitson, 1874 * ''

Vindula ''Vindula'', commonly called cruisers, is a genus of butterflies of the subfamily Heliconiinae in the family Nymphalidae found in southeast Asia and Australia. These butterflies are dimorphic. Species Ordered alphabetically: * ''Vindula arsinoe ...

'' Hemming, 1934 – cruisers * ''

Cirrochroa ''Cirrochroa'', commonly called yeomen, is a genus of butterflies of the subfamily Heliconiinae in the family Nymphalidae found in southeast Asia. The genus ranges from India to New Guinea. Description Fairly large, broad-winged butterflies. The ...

'' Doubleday, 1847 * '' Algiachroa'' Parsons, 1989 * ''

Algia ''Algia'' is a genus of butterflies of the subfamily Heliconiinae in the family Nymphalidae found in southeast Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 mil ...

'' Herrich-Schäffer, 1864 * ''

Terinos ''Terinos'' is a genus of Nymphalid butterflies. They are found from Burma, through South-East Asia, to New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, ...

'' Boisduval, 1836 * ''

Cupha ''Cupha'' is a butterfly genus of the family Nymphalidae found in the Indomalayan and the Australasian realms. The ''Cupha'' species are sharply divided from related genera by two characters: the thread like almost clubless antennae and the fou ...

'' Billberg, 1820 * ''

Vagrans ''Vagrans'' is monotypic genus with the species vagrant (''Vagrans egista'') a species of nymphalidae, nymphalid butterfly found in forested areas of tropical South Asia and Southeast Asia. Description Race ''sinha'' The upperside of the wing ...

'' Hemming, 1934

Duponchel, 1835 * '' Euptoieta'' Doubleday 1848 * ''

'' Trimen, 1887 (tentatively placed here) * '' Yramea'' Reuss 1920 * ''

'' Moore, 1900 (including ''Clossiana'') * ''

'' Hübner 1819 * ''

Brenthis ''Brenthis'' is a butterfly genus of the family Nymphalidae. Species ReferencesBioLib.cz Argynnis ''Argynnis'' is a genus of butterflies in the family Nymphalidae, one of several groups known as "fritillaries". This genus has three subgenera: ''Argynnis'', ''Fabriciana'', and ''Speyeria''. The species of the subgenera ''Argynnis'' and ''Fabr ...

'' Fabricius 1807 * ''

Speyeria ''Speyeria'', commonly known as greater fritillaries, is a genus of butterflies in the family Nymphalidae commonly found in North America, Europe, and Asia. Some authors used to consider this taxon a subgenus of '' Argynnis'', but it has been re ...

'' Scudder, 1872 * '' Fabriciana'' Reuss, 1920

Footnotes

References

* (1981). The biology of ''Heliconius'' and related genera. '' Annu. Rev. Entomol.'' 26: 427–456. PDF fulltext
* (2004). ''The Butterfly Handbook'': 130. Barron's Educational Series, Inc., Hauppauge, New York. * (2008). Markku Savela's Lepidoptera and some other life forms &ndash

Version of 2008-FEB-09. Retrieved 2008-AUG-14. * (2008). Phylogenetic relationships of butterflies of the tribe Acraeini (Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae, Heliconiinae) and the evolution of host plant use. '' Mol. Phylogenet. Evol.'' 46(2): 515–531. (HTML abstract) * (2008). Nymphalidae.net &ndash
The higher classification of Nymphalidae
Retrieved 2008-AUG-14.

External links

Tree of Life Heliconiinae

Heliconius Butterfly Website

Heliconius Genomics Project

on the UF / IFAS Featured Creatures Web site
Butterflies and Moths of North America

Butterflies of America
{{Authority control - Butterfly subfamilies

Systematics

Genera

Footnotes

References

Further reading

External links