Parisota (heliconius doris butterfly)
This was taken at Spirogyra butterfly garden in Costa Rica.
I like my D90 more each day!
This picture is without any manipulation, just as it came out of the camera.
Heliconius
Not to be confused with Heliconia.
Synonyms
Ajantis Hübner, 1816
Apostraphia Hübner, 1816
Blanchardia Buchecker, 1880 non Castelnau, 1875: preoccupied)
Crenis Hübner, 1821
Heliconia Godart 1819
Heliconius Latreille, 1804
Laparus Billberg 1820
Migonitis Hübner, 1816 (non Rafinesque, 1815: preoccupied)
Neruda Turner 1976
Phlogris Hübner, 1825
Podalirius Gistel, 1848
Sunias Hübner, 1816
Sicyonia Hübner, 1816
Heliconius comprise a colorful and widespread brush-footed butterfly genus distributed throughout the tropical and subtropical regions of the New World. These butterflies have been a subject of many studies due to their abundance and relative ease in breeding under laboratory conditions, as well as due to the extensive mimicry that occurs in this group. Studying this model group is helping scientists to understand how species are formed and why they are so diverse. They are usually unpalatable and are models for Müllerian mimicry by unrelated butterflies. Hybrid speciation has been found to occur in this genus.