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The adult butterflies are unusual in feeding on pollen as well as on nectar; the pollen enables them to synthesize cyanogenic glycosides that make their bodies toxic to potential predators. Caterpillars feed on various species of passionflower, evading the plants' defensive trichomes by biting them off or laying silk mats over them.
The species is a medium-sized yellow butterfly, with females more pale than males. They are found from southern regions of Florida and Texas through southern Brazil and northern Argentina. The caterpillars feed on the leaves of several local host plants, while adults prefer to feed on the nectar of red or orange colored flowers.
Eumaeus atala, also known as the Atala butterfly or coontie hairstreak, is a small colorful butterfly in the family Lycaenidae. It is found in southeastern Florida (including the Florida Keys) in the United States, Cuba, the Bahamas, and the Cayman Islands in the West Indies. Its coloration and habits are unique among butterflies within its range.
Appias drusilla, the Florida white or tropical white, is a butterfly in the family Pieridae. It is found in tropical America from Brazil north to southern peninsular Florida and the Florida Keys and Antilles. It frequently visits coastal Texas and is a rare stray to Nebraska and Colorado. The habitat consists of tropical lowland evergreen or ...
The Entomology and Nematology department of the University of Florida writes that the caterpillar is found "from New Jersey to Florida and west to Arkansas and Texas (Covell 2005). It is common in ...
Additional plants which will provide for the needs of caterpillars and butterflies are: shasta daisy, black-eyed Susan, cardinal flower, phlox, cosmos, sedums, ironweed, mountain laurel, verbena ...
Another colony of breeding Miami blue butterflies was discovered in the Great White Heron National Wildlife Refuge in 2016. [15] The Miami blue butterfly is listed as an Endangered species by the state of Florida [16] and the federal government. [17] It is listed as a Critically Imperiled subspecies by NatureServe.
These caterpillars can grow up to three inches (76 mm) in length. After the caterpillars mature they then pupate (a pupa is an insect at the immobile non-feeding stage of development between larva and adult, and pupating is when many internal changes occur in the pupa stage) and remain in their chrysalis until the following spring. [21]