Heliconius charithonia, Linnaeus, 1767

Brower, Andrew V. Z., 2018, Alternative facts: a reconsideration of putatively natural interspecific hybrid specimens in the genus Heliconius (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae), Zootaxa 4499 (1), pp. 1-87 : 74-75

Putative H. charithonia x H. peruvianus hybrid

Hybrid #159 (not illustrated in Mallet et al. (2007). Ecuador: Pichincha, Río Toachi, 1700m. 1996 leg. C. Jiggins (Jiggins collection). This butterfly, documented by Jiggins & Davies (1998), has an H. charithonia phenotype (cf. Fig. 169 ), but a distribution of allozyme alleles that suggested to them an F1 hybrid between H. charithonia and H. peruvianus ( Fig. 171 ). Mallet et al. (2007) interpreted it as backcross to H. charithonia , likely due to its homozygous condition of malic enzyme for an allele that is nearly absent from H. peruvianus . There are no fixed differences among the alleles examined by Jiggins & Davies (1998) between these two species, so it is possible that it is H. charithonia . (Also note that prior to Jiggins and Davies' study, H. peruvianus was viewed as a race of H. charithonia ).

Identity: 0.9

Authenticity: 1.0

Overall reliability: 0.9

Figures

FIGURE 169. H. charithonia vasquezae Comstock & Brown, 1950 (dorsal, ventral). Guatemala: Monte Rico, Santa Rosa. (image source: https://cliniquevetodax.com/Heliconius/pages/charithonia%20vazquezae.html)

FIGURE 171. H. peruvianus C. Felder & R. Felder, 1859 (dorsal). Ecuador: "Esmeraldas, Lita, Chuchuví" (locality data erroneous—K. Willmott pers. comm.). (image source: https://cliniquevetodax.com/Heliconius/pages/peruvianus.html). This taxon, elevated from subspecific status by Jiggins & Davies (1998), is a dry-forest segregate from western Ecuador like H. himera.