Atala Butterflies at Last!

For the last few years, we've been looking for an opportunity to display and possibly raise Atala butterflies here at MOSI Outside, and time has finally arrived! This species is found only in South Florida right now, but may have originally had a much wider range. The story of this butterfly is closely linked to that of its host plant, coontie. They serve as both a cautionary tale and an exciting success story.

Atala (Eumaeus atala)
Atalas are members of the hairstreak family, and in fact are sometimes called Atala Hairstreaks or Coontie Hairstreaks. They have a wingspan of about 1.5 inches and are extremely easy to identify with their bright orange abdomens and black wings speckled with iridescent blue. Gorgeous as they are with their wings closed, Atalas are even more incredible when their wings open and they display a stunning blue-green overlay.

The Atala butterfly was first described by Cuban zoologist Felipe Poey. The butterfly is named for the heroine of an 1801 novella, Atala ou les amours de deux sauvages dans le désert, written by François-René de Chateaubriand, the “Father of French Romanticism”.

Atala eggs are laid singly or in clusters on their host plant, and a close look reveals an almost "hairy" appearance. Atala caterpillars are a brilliant red-orange color with seven pairs of yellow spots. These vivid colors are an example of aposematic coloration, where the bright colors serve as a warning sign to predators that the organism in question is toxic. Atala larvae feed on coontie and sequester the toxins (cycasin) from this plant, which remain in their bodies throughout their entire life cycle.

In 1960, the Florida subspecies, Eumaeus atala florida, was so rare that scientists feared it was extinct. Fortunately, this brilliant little butterfly hadn't quite died out, and there are now several thriving populations in and around the Miami area. This is thanks to a resurgence in popularity of their host plant, coontie.

Florida Coontie (Zumia floridana)

Atala butterflies use coontie as a host plant. Coontie is one of the oldest species of plants still found growing today and was resident on Earth in the time of the dinosaurs. Many cycads were likely used as forage for herbivorous dinosaurs. The seeds of Coontie are bright orange and are used as food sources for several species of birds that help to distribute the seeds to new areas. Coontie, like magnolia, is a species so old that it predates bees and is pollinated by beetles. (Learn much more about coontie here.)

As with many cycads, coontie is extremely slow-growing, putting on only a few inches in height and width each year. This wasn't particularly a problem throughout much of history, until fairly recently. Long ago, Native Americans discovered that coontie roots were edible as long as they were boiled multiple times to remove the toxins. They ground the root to obtain a starchy flour. They consumed the plant in small numbers, never uprooting more than a few from each patch, so that coontie continued to thrive. It wasn't until European settlers discovered coontie that problems arose.

Around the mid-1800s, Florida settlement began in earnest with cattle farmers and other settlers. They learned the secrets of coontie from the Native Americans and added it to their diet. Soon, manufacturers discovered this cheap source of starch and began to harvest the plants all over Florida, selling their new product as "arrowroot flour". In the course of just a few decades, they removed what had taken hundreds of years to grow, and coontie simply couldn't grow fast enough to keep up. By the mid-1900s, coontie was almost gone from Florida, and along with it went the Atala butterfly, who depended on the foliage for its survival.

In recent years, though, homeowners and landscapers have "rediscovered" coontie. This drought-tolerant native grows in nearly any conditions, and has found its way back into gardens all over the state. Here in Hillsborough County, coontie is frequently used in roadway medians, and readily available at native plant nurseries. Conditions are much the same in nearby Pinellas County, the only other area outside Miami where Atala butterflies have been spotted in the wild. This gives us great hope for a continued resurgence of these butterflies in the years to come. Click here to learn more about the relationship between Atalas and coontie and how Florida homeowners can help.