Zebra Longwing Butterfly, Heliconius charithonia (Linnaeus)

Introducing the Zebra Longwing Butterfly. I captured this video of a Zebra Longwing at the Tennessee Aquarium’s Butterfly Garden Exhibit in Chattanooga, TN.

According to flawildflowers.org (a link to the article is below) the Zebra Longwing is the state butterfly of Florida. The usual lifespan of an adult butterfly is between two and four weeks, but longwings have a secret technique that allows them to live for several months! A longwing gathers globs of gooey pollen on its proboscis while consuming nectar. The butterfly will spit digestive enzymes onto the pollen mass once it has accumulated enough pollen, breaking it down into a digestible, protein-rich supplement. This "pollen milkshake" aids in the development of eggs or sperm and extends the life of the butterfly.

Visit the website links below for more information about this butterfly.

https://www.flawildflowers.org/know-your-native-pollinators-zebra-longwing/

https://tnaqua.org/animal/zebra-longwing/

Soundtrack credit is at the end of the video. The song is Sundown in Twang Town by Mr Smith. This song is used under a Creative Commons License (link below) and the song is found at Free Music Archive (link below).

https://freemusicarchive.org/music/mr-smith/guitarista/sundown-in-twang-town/

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode

I hope you enjoy this video & the accompanying music. Please subscribe if you haven’t already. Thanks for watching & supporting!