Never saw one of these before

My son and I were fishing on our lake in the backyard (drain pond I should say) and saw one of these guys flitting around on the waters edge. I have only seen them at Butterfly World, never in the wild. We got very excited! He/she never made it to the BF garden, but I can only hope it will come back for a visit. Very prettty! I have seen it called "red postman" and "dizzy butterfly". I looked it up and it is a Heliconius erato. Apparently passionflower is its host plant, so maybe I'll get some future cats on my passionflower. That would be very exciting. Just wanted to share since I have been down here 20 years and never saw one outside of captivity. This picture is one I took at Butterfly World in Coconut Creek. (We are going again today, YEAH).

Cool...congrats on the sighting!!

Wow!
I don't think H. erato/postman butterflies are supposed to occur in Florida, at least not naturally, so you may be the beneficiary of an escapee from Butterfly World - congrats, congrats!
It would be great if it were a female and she laid some eggs on your passionvines!
Sherry

I saw her twice on our seawall, so I am going to take the camera next time.

Sherry,
Do you know where they normally occur? An escapee would be great!

My butterfly books only list/show them as occurring in Central and South America. The only longwings native to Florida are gulf frits, zebra longwings, and julias, so yours, if not an escapee, would have to be a far flung stray.
Congrats!!
Sherry

Well,
Sherry got me thinking about the no FL zone, and I am about 30 miles from Butterfly world, so I am wondering is what I saw wasn't a red admiral, which can be found in FL. I am going to hunt again for her with the camera to make sure. The two look a lot alike. (At least from the pictures I dug up). I feel like such a dope! I'm still hoping for the red postamn, that would have been very exciting! Any butterfly in the yard is exciting at this point though.

We get to see Eratos perhaps once or twice a year out here in the deep south tip of Texas - they stray over from Mexico. That doesn't look at all like the Erato Heliconians we get here though.
http://www.naba.org/chapters/nabast/erato.htm

Most likely an escapee. That looks like Heliconius melpomene not Heliconius erato.

~ Cat



This message was edited Jun 15, 2009 2:20 PM

Here is a link showing the Heliconius melpomene.
http://www.tolweb.org/Heliconius_melpomene/72252
A Red Admiral is not a longwing, so that will be something you can immediately notice if you see it again.