''Heliconius wallacei'', the Wallace's longwing, is a

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 The Nymphalidae are the largest family of butterflies, with more than 6,000 species distributed throughout most of the world. Belonging to the superfamily Papilionoidea, they are usually medium-sized to large butterflies. Most species have a red ...

. It was described by

Tryon Reakirt Tryon Reakirt (21 April 1844 – after 1871) was an American businessman and entomologist. He wrote several papers on butterflies and showed great promise in his field. However his career was cut short when financial and legal difficulties forced hi ...

in 1866. It is found from

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

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...

to southern

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

and

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal , national_motto = "Fi ...

. The habitat consists of lowland rainforests. The

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingspan of ...

is 70–75 mm. 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 mostly feed on ''

Passiflora ''Passiflora'', known also as the passion flowers or passion vines, is a genus of about 550 species of flowering plants, the type genus of the family Passifloraceae. They are mostly tendril-bearing vines, with some being shrubs or trees. They ...

'' species from the subgenus '' Distephana''. Full-grown larvae have a maroon body and a brown head and reach a length of about 10 mm.TOL
/ref>

Subspecies

*''H. w. wallacei'' (Brazil: Pará) *''H. w. araguaia'' Brown, 1976 (Brazil: Goiás) *''H. w. colon'' Weymer, 1891 (Surinam, Brazil: Amazonas) *''H. w. flavescens'' Weymer, 1891 (Ecuador, Peru, Guyana, Bolivia) *''H. w. kayei'' Neustetter, 1929 (Trinidad) *''H. w. mimulinus'' Butler, 1873 (Colombia)

References

wallacei Nymphalidae of South America Butterflies of Trinidad and Tobago Lepidoptera of Brazil Lepidoptera of French Guiana Lepidoptera of Venezuela Fauna of the Amazon Butterflies described in 1866 Taxa named by Tryon Reakirt {{Nymphalidae-stub