A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife
Project Noah Nature School
Heliconius cydno galanthus
Several butterflies in this Pavillion had this white accumulation on their probiscus. Thanks to bayucca's link, I now know this is pollen... see reference link. Very interesting.
Butterfly pavillion in the Mexico City Zoo
Typically found in forest understorey and deposits its eggs on Passiflora plants.
Heliconius cydno galanthus.
Pam, the white substance on the proboscis are pollen! It is wellknown in the meanwhile that Heliconius sp. use this pollen as nutrition, specially the amino acids and there is a very close relationship between this nutrition and the importance for pupal mating and development of the eggs. Since I am quite busy, I just add you some papers for illustration.
In addition Heliconius hecale zuleika is one of the most if not the most long-living butterfly. It may take up to 9 months of live, which is quite extraordinary for a butterfly. That is also the reason why you often find quite worn Heliconius sp. They use the pollen as nutrition for prolonging the life cycle of the butterfly, so extra energy!
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles...
http://www.butterfliesofamerica.com/docs...
http://www.heliconius.org/biology/ecolog...
Spotted on Apr 12, 2015
Submitted on Apr 17, 2015
+1
