Heliconius hortenseMargarita Beltrán
Early stages: Eggs are yellow and females usually place eggs singly on growing shoots of the host plant. Mature larvae have a white body with black and orange spots, black scoli and yellow head; length is around 1.3 cm. Caterpillars are solitary (Brown, 1981).
Heliconius hortense is distributed from Mexico to Nicaragua. This map shows an approximate representation of the geographic distribution of this species. The original data used to draw these maps are derived from Brown (1979) which is available at Keith S. Brown Jr. (1979). Ecological Geography and Evolution in Neotropical Forests
H. hortense occurs from sea level to 2,300 m in cloud forest. Usually individuals fly rapidly and in the lowerstory. The males sit on female pupae a day before emergence, and mating occurs the next morning, before the female has completely eclosed. Adults roost at night in small groups 2-10 m above ground in twigs or tendrils (Brown, 1981).
Host plant: H. hortense larvae feed primarily on plants from the genus Passiflora, subgenus Plectostemma (Brown, 1981).
Brown K. S. 1981 The Biology of Heliconius and Related Genera. Annual Review of Entomology 26, 427-456.
Guérin-Méneville F E 1844. Dixième ordre.- Les lépidoptères, pp. 466-530. In: Icono-graphie du Règne Animal de G. Cuvier... Paris, J. B. Baillière
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- First online 18 February 2007
- Content changed 12 August 2008
Citing this page:
Beltrán, Margarita. 2008. Heliconius hortense http://tolweb.org/Heliconius_hortense/72233/2008.08.12 in The Tree of Life Web Project, http://tolweb.org/. Version 12 August 2008 (under construction).