''Heliconius sapho'', the Sapho longwing, is a

butterfly 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 ...

of 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 Papilionoidea, they are usually medium-sized to large butterflies. Most species ha ...

. It was described by

Dru Drury Dru Drury (4 February 1725 – 15 January 1804) was a British collector of natural history specimens and an entomologist. He received specimens collected from across the world through a network of ship's officers and collectors including Henry ...

in 1782. It is found from

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

southward to

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

Name

Drury left no notes on the origin of the name, but the spelling (and the naming conventions of the time) suggests it derives from the mythological Queen Sapho, not the historical poet

Sappho Sappho (; ''Sapphṓ'' ; Aeolic Greek ''Psápphō''; ) was an Ancient Greek poet from Eresos or Mytilene on the island of Lesbos. Sappho is known for her lyric poetry, written to be sung while accompanied by music. In ancient times, Sapph ...

. Subsequent authors, from John O. Westwood onwards, have unjustifiably "corrected" the spelling.

Description

''Upperside'': Antennae black. Eyes brown.

Thorax The thorax (: thoraces or thoraxes) or chest is a part of the anatomy of mammals and other tetrapod animals located between the neck and the abdomen. In insects, crustaceans, and the extinct trilobites, the thorax is one of the three main di ...

and

abdomen The abdomen (colloquially called the gut, belly, tummy, midriff, tucky, or stomach) is the front part of the torso between the thorax (chest) and pelvis in humans and in other vertebrates. The area occupied by the abdomen is called the abdominal ...

black. Wings mazarine blue; the anterior ones having a white band crossing them from the middle of the anterior edges to the lower corners; the posterior edged with a white border, intersected by the blue tendons of the wings. ''Underside'': Palpi grey. Breast and abdomen black, streaked with white. Wings black where they are blue on the upper side, with the same white markings; but next the body are adorned with beautiful red streaks, ending in points resembling rays issuing from it. Margins of the wings entire. Wingspan inches (82 mm).

Subspecies

*''H. s. sapho'' *''H. s. leuce'' Doubleday, 1847 (Mexico - Costa Rica, Guatemala) *''H. s. hewitsoni'' Hewitson, 1875 (Costa Rica, Panama) *''H. s. chocoensis'' Brown & Benson, 1975 (Colombia) *''H. s. candidus'' Brown, 1976 (Ecuador) Hewitson's heliconian (Heliconius sapho hewitsoni) underside.jpg, ''H. s. hewitsoni''

Costa Rica Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America. It borders Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, as well as Maritime bo ...

File:Heliconius sapho.jpg, ''H. s. leuce''

Protective coloration and behavior

Müllerian mimicry

''H. sapho'' engages in''

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 ...

''with fellow Lepidoptera member '' H. cydno''. The coloring pattern of ''H. cydno'' is used to warn a predator of the unpleasant taste of their intended prey. ''H. sapho'' is mimicked by the subspecies ''H. cydno'' ''alithea'' when it exhibits one of its two colorations, known as its "white form".

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q3129742 Butterflies described in 1782 sapho Descriptions from Illustrations of Exotic Entomology Taxa named by Dru Drury Nymphalidae of South America Butterflies of Central America Lepidoptera of Mexico Lepidoptera of Colombia Lepidoptera of Ecuador