Yellow spots mimicking eggs of Heliconia butterflies on the leaf of a passion flower plant, Passiflora helleri.

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Many Heliconia butterflies lay eggs on passion flower leaves; the caterpillars that hatch from the eggs eat the leaves, damaging the plants. To avoid competition, the butterflies do not lay eggs on leaves that already have eggs from another butterfly. This species of passion flower has leaves with spots that mimic Heliconia eggs, thereby protecting the plant from caterpillar damage.

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Size: 3347px × 5020px
Location: Massachusetts, USA
Photo credit: © Custom Life Science Images / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: angiosperm, angiosperms, background, black, dicot, dicots, egg, eudicot, eudicots, evolution, evolved, helleri, islc, malpighiales, mimic, mimicking, passiflora, passifloraceae, passionflower, plant, plants