Postman butterfly (Heliconius melpomene) on a leaf

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The postman butterfly, common postman, or simply postman (Heliconius melpomene) is one of the heliconiine butterflies found from Mexico to northern South America. Several species in the genus have very similar markings and are difficult to is an example of mimicry. The postman butterfly has large long wings with an orange stripe down each forewing. It is poisonous and has red patterns on its wings. They tend to look similar to the species Heliconius erato. Two features found on the underside help to distinguish H. erato from H. melpomene—H. erato has four red dots where the wing attaches to the thorax while H. melpomene has three and the yellowish white stripe on the underside reaches the margin of the hindwing in H. erato but ends before reaching the margin in H. melpomene.

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Size: 5760px × 3840px
Location: Woking Surrey GU23 6QB United Kingdom
Photo credit: © Niall Ferguson / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No

Keywords: butterfly, heliconius, insect, melpomene, postman