Zebra longwing
Zebra Longwing- Heliconius chartomius
The Zebra Longwing was declared the Florida state butterfly in 1996!
This is a beautiful black butterfly with narrow strips of yellow on its wings making its name very accurate to the butterfly's description, with a wingspan of 2 to 4 inches.
Habitat preference- In the southern tip of Florida they prefer tropical hammocks while in the northern part of the state they prefer moist woods and the edges of pine forests.
Life span- Adults can live as long as 4 to 6 months. The life cycle from egg to adult is about 21 days!
The eggs are small and yellow in color, once hatched they are a cream color but as they grow they develop the more distinct white with black splatter like pattern. The spikes are also black but do not sting. The host plant that also acts as a nectar source is the Passion Vine!
Cool facts! The caterpillars molts (a shedding of a layer of skin) 5 times before it pupates. Nap time? At night adult Zebra Longwings roost in clusters ranging from 6 to 60 or more! Both males and female return to the same roost every night! Pollen ball for lunch! Zebralong wings as well as other Heliconian butterflies also consume pollen! They gather it up on the outside of their proboscis. They will the secrete digestive enzymes through their proboscis to the pollen ball breaking down the pollen proteins into Amino acids which the butterfly the sucks up! This is called external digestion. The amino acids play a role in both egg and sperm production as well as over all butterfly health!
