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Banded Orange Heliconian
Nicolas Olejnik, CC BY 4.0, via iNaturalist

Butterflies & moths

Banded Orange Heliconian

Dryadula phaetusa (Linnaeus, 1758)

Names

EnglishBanded Orange Heliconian
Dutch—
SpanishMariposa bandas naranja
Chinese环袖蝶
Sranan Tongokapelka (general name for the group)
Scientific nameDryadula phaetusa (Linnaeus, 1758)

About this species

Dryadula is a monotypic genus of the butterfly family Nymphalidae. Its single species, Dryadula phaetusa, known as the banded orange heliconian, banded orange, or orange tiger, is native from Brazil to central Mexico, and in summer can be found rarely as far north as central Florida. Its wingspan ranges from 86 to 89 mm, and it is colored a bright orange with thick black stripes in males and a duller orange with fuzzier black stripes in females.

It feeds primarily on the nectar of flowers and on bird droppings; its caterpillar feeds on passion vines including Passiflora tetrastylis. It is generally found in lowland tropical fields and valleys.

This species is unpalatable to birds and belongs to the "orange" Müllerian mimicry complex.

Read more on Wikipedia · Text: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Classification

KingdomAnimalia
PhylumArthropoda
ClassInsecta
OrderLepidoptera
FamilyNymphalidae
GenusDryadula

In Suriname

223Records in Suriname
87iNaturalist observations
1969First record
2026Latest record

Where it has been recorded

  • Commewijne46
  • Paramaribo31
  • Sipaliwini31
  • Wanica17
  • Para14
  • Brokopondo10
  • Nickerie5
  • Saramacca3
  • Coronie2
  • Marowijne1

Districts with at least one record that has coordinates. Shaded districts have records.

Records by month

All years combined.

Sources & credits

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