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Project Noah Nature School
Eumaeus atala
This precious little Hairstreak is called the Atala or Coontie Hairstreak. It occurs on a small area on the tip of Florida as well as Cuba, the Bahamas and the Cayman Islands. The abdomen is bright red and they have a red spot on the underwings. The larvae absorb toxic chemicals from their host plant for which they display aposematic (warning) coloring both as larvae and adults. The upper wings are metallic blue although they rarely open their wings once they have landed. Family Lycaenidae.
These were bred and displayed in the Butterfly House of the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History.
For pictures of all the stages of the life cycle, see: http://butterflies.heuristron.net/butter... http://butterflies.heuristron.net/butter... http://rollingharbour.com/2013/06/21/flu... http://rollingharbour.com/2013/01/05/the...
Spotted on May 29, 2014
Submitted on Jun 24, 2014
2 Comments
Gracias Juan, I had to follow it all over the place to get a couple of shots worth keeping. They are so fast and nervous and never open their wings. If it hadn't been confined within the Butterfly House, it would have been hopeless :)
Muy buena!, yo sólo he visto una vez una de éstas, y la foto no me salió nada bien