Scientific Name: Strymon melinus
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Leycaenidae
Diet: Caterpillars hosts are flowers and fruits from many plants, mainly those from the pea and mallow families, i.e. beans, clovers, cotton and mallow. Adults feed on nectar from milkweed, mint, dogbane, winter cress, tick trefoil and white sweet clover.
Vegetation Association: Hosts plants are mainly from the pea and mallow families. Habitat is open deciduous woods, coastlines, roadsides, chaparral, old fields, parks, and other open spaces.
Predators:
Life Stages: Complete metamorphosis; egg, larva, pupa, adult.
Notes: Young caterpillars feed and shed their skin, or molt. The final molt produces the pupa, and then the butterfly rests. Once free of the chrysalis, fluid from its body is pumped into its wings, the wings then are allowed to dry before it flies away to look for food and a mate. This caterpillar is known as the ?cotton square borer? and has damaged commercial bean, hops, and cotton crops. This is one of the most commonly distributed butterflies.
Photo: To be added.
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