Atala Butterfly (Eumaeus atala)

Atala Butterfly (Eumaeus atala)
Insect art to promote insect growth and development.

The Atala Butterfly, once thought to be extinct, is native to Florida. The host plant is the Florida coontie (Zamia floridana), which is a cycad, a "living fossil," (a form of the primitive plant life from the dinosaur era). The Atala can tolerate the natural toxins in coonties and uses the accumulated toxins and its brilliant coloration as a defense against bird predators. The female lays her eggs, five to fifteen, usually, on coontie stalks (depicted here) or deposited on the apex of mature leaflets. Caterpillars are known to be cannibalistic. The butterfly emerges in the early morning, courts and mates in the late afternoon, and dies within ten days.The nectar plant depicted here is the White Indigo Berry (Randia aculeata), a member of the Rubiaceae family. It is a pineland shrub with white, salmon-blushed fruit, and white star-shaped flowers that are exuberantly fragrant.

Artist: Sarah Saltus Siddig

E-Mail Address: sarahsaltsid@comcast.net