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The Red Postman, Heliconius erato (my gallery link) is found from Southern Texas in the U.S. south through Mexico, all of Central America and most of South America. It is easily confused with the Postman, Heliconius melpomene rosina (my gallery link), found only in Costa Rica and Panama.
¡Pura Vida!
This is one of two butterfly species called “Postman.” This one with the addition of “Red” in the common English name, has the scientific name of Heliconius erato (my gallery link) and at least one website uses a different common name of “Erato Heliconia” instead of “Red Postman.” And that is just in the English language! 🙂
Then to make it more complicated, the other species that looks the same to most people has the common English name of plain “Postman” or other websites use the common name of “Melpomene Heliconian,” which like the other one is a twist on the scientific name which is: Heliconius melpomene rosina (my gallery link). Any hobby that includes scientific names and information will get complicated sometimes! 🙂
A single photo of the Erato version for the emailed blog post, followed by a gallery of 4 different shots from different angles to help the identifiers. 🙂
This Heliconius erato (scientific name) has the English Common Name of “Red Postman” as opposed to the Heliconius melpomene rosina (my gallery link) which is often called just plain “Postman.” There is only a slight difference in both the red and the white bars on these two similar butterflies
And note that this one in today’s post has a very long Spanish Common Name here in Costa Rica: “Mariposa de Alas Largas de Bandas Carmesí.” See more of my many photos of this “Red Postman” Heliconius erato in that linked gallery. The two photos here were made near my room at Tortuga Lodge & Gardens, Tortuguero National Park, Limón, Costa Rica.
Although birds are the biggest category of wildlife for me at Maquenque Ecolodge, there are a lot of other wildlife and on this April trip I photographed 10 species of butterflies with one being a Lifer or first time seen (the Glassy-winged Skipper). Below is 1 photo of each of the 10 species for those who don’t go to separate galleries. Or here’s links to the online gallery with all my butterfly photos from this trip. https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/TRIPS/2023-April-9-14-Maquenque-Ecolodge/OTHER-ANIMALS/BUTTERFLIES
Or below see just one photo of each of the 10 species . . .
The only place I saw and photographed butterflies this trip was in the lodge gardens, totally on their Porter Weed flowers. I managed to capture 9 different species I think, but have only identified the 6 that are included in this post. See them in their own gallery below this anchor shot . . .
The largest family of butterflies is Nymphalidae – BRUSHFOOTS and you can click that link for my galleries in that family where I now have photos of 93 species. I did get one more photo from this family that I cannot yet identify, so not included here.
¡Pura Vida!
And the 2023 Xandari Trip Gallery is now ready for you to see all my photos from this colorful nature resort.
I already knew that Xandari was good for butterflies, but really didn’t think I would photograph this many species! And I’m still processing the photos and identifying, but it now looks like about 30 species. I could share one a day for the next 30 days but that would not be fair to you who are faithful readers of this blog, so just 3 days of Xandari butterflies! 🙂
One shot for the email notice of the blog and then a gallery of all 10 with actually 11 photos because one is so different with folded wings that you must see both views! 🙂
