Heliconiinae [SEP] parent taxon
Heliconiinae
The Heliconiinae, commonly called heliconians or longwings, are a subfamily of the brush-footed butterflies (family Nymphalidae). They can be divided into 45–50 genera and were sometimes treated as a separate family Heliconiidae within the Papilionoidea. The colouration is predominantly reddish and black, and though of varying wing shape, the forewings are always elongated tipwards, hence the common name.
Most longwings are found in the Tropics, particularly in South America; only the Argynnini are quite diverse in the Holarctic. Especially tropical species feed
that the Argynnini and Vagrantini are closer relatives than any other two tribes of Heliconiinae. The Acraeini and Heliconiini are probably more basal lineages, but the exact placement of each respective to the other tribes cannot be considered well resolved at all.
Some tribes are distributed among several continents, resulting in a confusing phylogeography pattern. But as it seems, the apparent contradictions between systematics and biogeography are due the premature classifications based on insufficient taxon sampling. With studies becoming more and more comprehensive, the apparent anomalies seem to sort themselves