When walking around USF Tampa, you may have noticed a small black and blue butterfly with a red body. They often fly low to the ground and perch in the nearby foliage. That butterfly is the Atala butterfly, also known as the coontie hairstreak.
The Atala butterfly (scientific name Eumaeus atala) was thought to be extinct from 1937 to 1959, they are mainly found in southeastern Florida, the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, Cuba, and the Cayman Islands. The Atala breeds year round, peaking mainly in June through January. They are sedentary creatures.
The butterflies were named by Felipe Poey, a cuban zoologist, after Atala, a character in the French author Chateaubriand’s novel. They are also called the coontie hairstreak because they feed exclusively on the coontie plant (also called the Florida arrowroot) in the first stages of their life. As a result, Atala butterflies are incredibly dependent on the coontie plant and their harvestation in the early 20th century contributed to the early loss of Atalas. They are also native pollinators.
The Atala butterfly is particularly special to USF; the first residence hall at USF’s Sarasota-Manatee campus is named after the Atala butterfly because of its comeback story. USF’s Sarasota-Manatee Housing and Residential Education says the Atala represents “the delicate balance of nature and the potential for revival and renewal in the face of adversity.”
USF’s campuses utilize the coontie plant for landscaping. Although their traditional range is limited to Florida’s southeastern coast around Miami, you may see the Atala butterfly resting on the coontie plant around the Tampa campus as well.