Heliconius erato
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~60%
Heliconius erato, or the red postman, is one of about 40 neotropical species of butterfly belonging to the genus Heliconius. It is also commonly known as the small postman, the red passion flower butterfly, or the crimson-patched longwing. It was described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae.
H. erato exhibits Müllerian mimicry with other Heliconius butterflies such as Heliconius melpomene in order to warn common predators against attacking, which contributes to its surprising longevity. It also has a unique mating ritual involving the transfer of anti-aphrodisiacs from males to females. Its host plants are various passion flower (Passiflora) vine species.
Recent field work has confirmed the relative abundance of this butterfly. H. erato is a neotropical species, found from southern Texas to northern Argentina and Paraguay, and resides on the edges of tropical rainforests. It is philopatric, having a particularly restricted home range. In areas of dense population in Trinidad, some home ranges are only separated by 30 yards, but H. erato rarely travels to neighboring home ranges.
Larvae feed... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Porto Alegre | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 2 | Valencia | 🇻🇪 Venezuela | |
| 3 | João Pessoa | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 4 | Salvador | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 5 | Campo Grande | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 6 | Curitiba | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 7 | Belo Horizonte | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 8 | Caracas | 🇻🇪 Venezuela | |
| 9 | São Luís | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 10 | San José | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Red Postman sighting in Fortaleza on a given day, based on 8 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 57th most-seen of the 112 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 60%, if each day is a fresh chance.
February
In that month about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Red Postman in Fortaleza on a given day, against under 5% in April–June, September and November–January, the lowest months. That is one of Fortaleza's wettest months, with about 150 mm of rain against almost none in September.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Red Postman sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
13th of 22
Of the 22 cities where we can rate Red Postman sightings, Fortaleza ranks 13th at about 10%. The best odds are in Porto Alegre (Brazil, about 30%), Valencia (Venezuela, about 20%) and João Pessoa (Brazil, about 20%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Red Postman is recorded against all the insects logged in Fortaleza (8 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
