''Heliconius metharme'' is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

butterfly Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the Order (biology), order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The ...

of the family Nymphalidae. It was described by

Wilhelm Ferdinand Erichson Dr Wilhelm Ferdinand Erichson (26 November 1809 in Stralsund – 18 December 1848 in Berlin) was a trained medical doctor and a German entomologist. He was the author of many articles about insects mainly in ''Archiv für Naturgeschichte''. When w ...

in 1849. It is widespread in the

Amazon basin The Amazon basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributaries. The Amazon drainage basin covers an area of about , or about 35.5 percent of the South American continent. It is located in the countries of Bolivi ...

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

and

the Guianas The Guianas, sometimes called by the Spanish loan-word ''Guayanas'' (''Las Guayanas''), is a region in north-eastern South America which includes the following three territories: * French Guiana, an overseas department and region of France * ...

. The habitat consists of deep forests. It is part of a mimicry ring with ''

Heliconius sara The Sara longwing (''Heliconius sara'') is a species of neotropical heliconiid butterfly found from Mexico to the Amazon Basin and southern Brazil. It is a colourful species: the dorsal wing surface is black with a large medial patch of metalli ...

'', ''

Heliconius wallacei ''Heliconius wallacei'', the Wallace's longwing, is a butterfly of the family Nymphalidae. It was described by Tryon Reakirt in 1866. It is found from Venezuela and Trinidad to southern Brazil and Peru. The habitat consists of lowland rainforests ...

'' and '' Heliconius doris''. The larvae are

gregarious Sociality is the degree to which individuals in an animal population tend to associate in social groups (gregariousness) and form cooperative societies. Sociality is a survival response to evolutionary pressures. For example, when a mother wasp ...

and feed on ''

Dilkea ''Dilkea'' is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Passifloraceae. Its native range is Southern Tropical America. The genus name of ''Dilkea'' is in honour of Sir Charles Wentworth Dilke, 1st Baronet (1810–1869), an English pol ...

'' and '' Mitostemma'' species."'' Neruda metharme'' (Erichson 1849)"
at ''Tree of Life Web Project''

Subspecies

*''Heliconius metharme metharme'' — Guyana *''Heliconius metharme makiritare'' (Brown & Fernández, 1985) — Venezuela *''Heliconius metharme perseis'' Stichel, 1923 — Colombia

References

''Neruda metharme''
at ''Insecta.pro'' Butterflies described in 1849

metharme Galatea (; grc-gre, Γαλάτεια; "she who is milk-white") is a name popularly applied to the statue carved of ivory by Pygmalion of Cyprus, which then came to life in Greek mythology. In modern English, the name usually alludes to that sto ...

Nymphalidae of South America Lepidoptera of Venezuela Lepidoptera of Colombia Lepidoptera of Guyana Taxa named by Wilhelm Ferdinand Erichson {{Heliconiinae-stub