Melinaea menophilus zaneka (left) and Godyris duillia (right) on flowers of Guraniavine (Cucurbitaceae). Río Abanico, Ecuador.
Used by permission from Andrew Neild © 2000
As well as helping to produce systematic treatments and estimates of phylogeny of the whole group at species level, Keith Willmott is concentrating on the genera Pteronymia and Oleria. Molecular work on the higher level phylogeny of Ithomiinae is being done by Andrew Brower's group. Alaine Whinnett at UCL is using molecular methods to study species-level phylogeny and biogeography in the tribes Ithomiini, Oleriini and Dircennini. Another collaboator, now living in Tarapoto, Peru, is Stéphanie Gallusser (Neuchâtel), who did her PhD on hybridization and host plant ecology in the ithomiine genus Oleria. Another collaborator, Mathieu Joron is currently also working on Heliconius and ithomiine butterflies in the area.
The Tarapoto area of Peru, with its high local diversity of heliconiine and ithomiine species and geographic forms and multiple contact zones, offers a rare chance to document suture zones and biogeography on a close-up scale. We are therefore focusing on this area for molecular and ecological studies. A list of species of heliconiine and ithomiine butterflies studied, with links to photographs and distribution data is available (Mathieu Joron's ithomiine site shows the mimictry extremely well) as part of the ongoing taxonomy/biogeography/molecular evolution project.
See also Bill Haber's excellent pages on Ithomiinae
of Monteverde, Costa Rica, part of his website on the Natural History
of Monteverde.