wingspan : 65/80 mm
Heliconius telesiphe is a common butterfly from Colombia to Peru.
there are two forms : this one, f. telesiphe, with a white transverse band on the HW, and f. sotericus with a yellow transverse band on the HW. normally the yellow band form lives in the North, South of Colombia and Ecuador (down to Loja according to d’Abrera), and the white form in the South, Southern Ecuador and Northern Peru.
for our part we found
- f. telesiphe from the Peruvian border in the South up to the Atillo/Macas road,
- and f. sotericus from the North East of Ecuador down to the rio Pastaza valley,
hence a gap of 70 km from North to South.
so Sangay NP is a trasition zone, but this 70 km area is not very easy to get to at elevations of more than 1000 meters ; we know of only two access tracks that we visited countless times - and we never saw Heliconius telesiphe.
on the other hand, for Podotricha telesiphe, which looks quite like Heliconius telesiphe, which has the same two forms : white bands and yellow bands, and which shares the same geographic distribution, there is an overlap of the two forms.
