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Heliconius sara (Fabricius 1793)

Margarita Beltrán and Andrew V. Z. Brower
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Containing group: Heliconius

Introduction

A widespread neotropical species. H. sara is a relatively small Heliconius, and member of one of the few sister-taxon mimetic pairs (with H. leucadia).

Characteristics

Early stages:  Eggs are yellow and approximately 1.1 x 0.7 mm (h x w). Females gather together and usually each place 15 to 40 eggs on growing shoots of the host plant. Mature larvae have a yellow body with black bands, with black scoli and head; length is approximately 0.4 cm. Caterpillars are gregarious (Brown, 1981). Pupae are pale brown with black spines and black veins on the wingpads, the head horns are short and have few golden spots (DeVries, 1997).

Geographical Distribution

Heliconius sara is widespread throughout Central America and South America. 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.

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Distribution of Heliconius sara. © 2002 Margarita Beltran.

Geographical races/subspecies

Like most Heliconius species, H. sara includes a variety of geographical variants. Most of the morphological differences relate to the shape of the proximal forewing band, which ranges from nearly round to a narrow transverse bar. The following are the valid names and synonyms applied to these forms (Lamas, 2004).
H. sara sara (Fabricius, 1793) Guiana Shield
= H. sara rhea (Cramer, 1775) (invalid, preoccupied Papilio rhea Poda, 1761)
= H. sara thamar (Hübner, [1806]) (described in Nerëis)
= H. rhea ab. albilinea Riffarth, 1899 (infrasubspecific, ICZN Art. 45.6.2)
=H. sara praesignis Stichel, 1919
=H. sara thamar f. nana Stammeshaus, 1982 (infrasubspecific, ICZN Art. 45.6.1)

H. sara apseudes (Hübner, [1813]) (described in Nerëis) Brazil
= H. sara apseudes (Hübner, [1808]) nomen nudum

H. sara brevimacula Riffarth, 1901 (ICZN Art. 45.5.1) Colombia
=H. sara var. magdalena ab.? (var.?) brevimaculata Staudinger, 1897 (infrasubspecific, ICZN Art. 45.6.1)

H. sara elektra Neukirchen, 1998 Colombia

H. sara fulgidus Stichel, 1906 Costa Rica

H. sara magdalena H. W. Bates, 1864 Colombia, Panama
=H. sara var. magdalena ab, albimaculata Staudinger, 1897 (infrasubspecific, ICZN Art. 45.6.1)
=H. sara ab. albula Riffarth, 1900 (infrasubspecific, ICZN Art. 45.6.2)
=H. sarae lilianae Emsley, 1965 (nomen nudum)

H. sara sprucei H. W. Bates, 1864 Ecuador

H. sara theudela Hewitson, 1874 Panama

H. sara veraepacis H. W. Bates 1864 Guatemala

H. sara williami Neukirchen, 1994 Trinidad

Habits

H. sara occurs from sea level to 1,300 m in forest edges.  Usually individuals fly slowly and in the middlestory. 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 to 10 m above ground in twigs or tendrils (Brown, 1981).

Host plant: H. sara larvae feed primarily on plants from the subgenera Astrophea and Granadilla (Passifloraceae) (Brown 1981). In Costa Rica H. s. fulgidus and H. s. theudela feed on Passiflora ariculata (DeVries, 1997).

References

Brown K. S. 1981 The Biology of Heliconius and Related Genera. Annual Review of Entomology 26, 427-456.

DeVries P. J. 1997 The Butterflies of Costa Rica and Their Natural History, Volume I: Papilionidae, Pieridae, Nymphalidae Princeton University Press, Baskerville, USA.

Fabricius J. C.1793. Entomologia systematica emendata et aucta. Secundum classes, ordines, genera, species adjectis synonimis, locis, observationibus, descriptionibus. Hafniae, Christian Gottlieb Proft, Fil. et Soc. 3(1): [vi] , 488 pp.

Title Illustrations
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Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window
Scientific Name Heliconius sara
Specimen Condition Dead Specimen
View Dorsal
Collection Gerardo Lamas
Image Use creative commons This media file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License - Version 3.0.
Copyright ©
Scientific Name Heliconius sara
Specimen Condition Dead Specimen
View Ventral
Collection Gerardo Lamas
Image Use creative commons This media file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License - Version 3.0.
Copyright ©
Scientific Name Heliconius sara
Location Entre Rios, Bahia, Brazil (12S 38W)
Specimen Condition Live Specimen
Identified By Alex Popovkin
Life Cycle Stage adult
View ventral
Image Use creative commons This media file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License - Version 2.0.
Copyright © 2008 Alex Popovkin
About This Page


University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK


Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, USA

Correspondence regarding this page should be directed to Margarita Beltrán at and Andrew V. Z. Brower at

Page: Tree of Life Heliconius sara (Fabricius 1793). Authored by Margarita Beltrán and Andrew V. Z. Brower. The TEXT of this page is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License - Version 3.0. Note that images and other media featured on this page are each governed by their own license, and they may or may not be available for reuse. Click on an image or a media link to access the media data window, which provides the relevant licensing information. For the general terms and conditions of ToL material reuse and redistribution, please see the Tree of Life Copyright Policies.

Citing this page:

Beltrán, Margarita and Andrew V. Z. Brower. 2010. Heliconius sara (Fabricius 1793). Version 21 June 2010 (under construction). http://tolweb.org/Heliconius_sara/72943/2010.06.21 in The Tree of Life Web Project, http://tolweb.org/

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