Julia Butterfly Sipping From A Flower

Title

Julia Butterfly Sipping From A Flower

Artist

Jeff Swan

Medium

Photograph - Photography

Description

DryasJulia-Ventral.jpg
Side view

Scientific classification

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Nymphalidae
Tribe: Heliconiini
Genus: Dryas
H�bner, [1807]
Species: D. iulia

Binomial name

Dryas iulia
(Fabricius, 1775)

Subspecies


14 ssp., see text


Synonyms


Genus:
Alcionea Rafinesque, 1815
Colaenis H�bner, 1819



Species:
Dryas julia (a common lapsus)[1]


Dryas iulia (often incorrectly spelled julia),[1] commonly called the Julia Butterfly, Julia Heliconian, The Flame, or Flambeau, is a species of brush-footed butterfly. The sole representative of its genus Dryas, it is native from Brazil to southern Texas and Florida, and in summer can sometimes be found as far north as eastern Nebraska. Over 15 subspecies have been described.





Two Julia Butterflies drinking tears from turtles in Ecuador
Its wingspan ranges from 82 to 92 mm, and it is colored orange (brighter in male specimens) with black markings; this species is somewhat unpalatable to birds and belongs to the "orange" Batesian Mimicry mimic complex.[2]

This butterfly is a fast flier and frequents clearings, paths, and margins of forests and woodlands. It feeds on the nectar of flowers, such as lantanas (Lantana) and Shepherd's-needle (Scandix pecten-veneris), and the tears of caiman, the eye of which the butterfly irritates to produce tears.[3] Its caterpillar feeds on leaves of passion vines including Passiflora affinis and Yellow Passionflower (P. lutea) in Texas.

The species is popular in butterfly houses because it is long-lived and active throughout the day

Uploaded

September 1st, 2015

Statistics

Viewed 1,080 Times  -  Last Visitor from Beverly Hills, CA on 04/15/2024 at 10:06 PM

Colors

Embed

Sales Sheet