Red postman
The red postman is a black butterfly with bright red patches on its wings, from the warm forests of the Americas. It tastes bad to birds, and its bright colours warn them to stay away. Because of this it lives a surprisingly long time for a butterfly.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
Several different kinds of butterflies share the same red and black colours, so birds learn to avoid all of them.
It stays in a small home area and rarely flies to its neighbours' patch.
The mother lays her eggs on the very tip of a passion flower vine.
Girl butterflies carry bigger pollen loads than boys, because they need extra food to make eggs.
Most asked questions about Red postman
?Why is the red postman butterfly red?
Its bright red and black colours warn birds that it tastes bad.
?What does the red postman butterfly eat?
Grown-ups mostly eat pollen and a little nectar. The caterpillars eat passion flower vines.
?Where does the red postman live?
From southern Texas to northern Argentina, at the edges of rainforests.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Heliconius erato
- Named by
- Linnaeus, 1758
- Group
- Butterflies
- Family
- Nymphalidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Nymphalidae
- Lives on
- North America, South America
- Also known as
- Small postman, Red passion flower butterfly, Crimson-patched longwing
Where the facts come from
- Heliconius erato (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Greg Hume. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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