Environmental complexity in Heliconius butterflies

This dataset contains data from experiments described in the manuscript: Moura, P. A., Cardoso, M. Z., and Montgomery, S. H. (submitted). Environmental complexity affects spatial navigation in Heliconius butterflies.This dataset contains behavioral data from 91 Heliconius erato butterflies tested under two spatial environments: an open cage and a maze cage with internal mesh walls that constrained movement and visibility. Resource placement was identical between treatments. Butterflies were randomly assigned to cages and housed for 15–36 days across two experimental rounds. Roosting positions were recorded daily using a 4 × 4 grid (16 cells) to quantify spatial roosting dynamics. At the end of the housing period, individuals completed a navigation assay in both familiar and unfamiliar cages. For each trial, we recorded feeder success (yes/no), latency to reach the feeder (seconds), and final grid position. The feeder was unrewarded to control for olfactory cues.