University of FloridaSolutions for Your Life

Download PDF
Publication #EENY-055

 

Goatweed Butterfly, Goatweed Emperor, Goatweed Leafwing Anaea andria Scudder (Insecta: Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae: Charaxinae)1

Donald W. Hall and Jerry F. Butler2

Introduction

The goatweed butterfly is an attractive, fascinating and widespread species that is not often observed by the general public because of its cryptic coloration and somewhat spotty distribution within its range. Both larvae and adults are cryptically colored. Adults play dead when handled. This species provides dramatic examples of adaptive coloration and behavior to escape predators in both the larval and adult stages.

Distribution

The goatweed butterfly is widely distributed throughout the southern Midwest and South ranging from West Virginia to Kansas and south to Texas and Central Florida.

Description

The wingspread of goatweed butterflies is 6.0 to 7.6 cm with males being slightly smaller than females. The upper surface of the wings of adult goatweed butterflies exhibit sexual dimorphism in both shape and color. The wings of males are more or less uniformly orange brown with a dark margin. The wings of females have an irregular lighter submarginal band with broad darker margins. The apex of the forewing is hooked (falcate) and each hind wing bears a short, pointed, backward-projecting tail. Both sexes exhibit marked seasonal dimorphism in wing shape. In the summer forms, the forewing apex is less hooked and the hindwing tail is shorter than in the winter form. They also exhibit seasonal color dimorphism. Summer males are slightly less orange with a narrower marginal band. Summer females are lighter in color than winter females. The undersides of the wings mimic dead leaves and are similar in both sexes.

Both the appearance of the adult seasonal forms and reproductive diapause in the winter forms are controlled by responses of the larvae to photoperiod (daylength). Larvae exposed to short photoperiods during late summer and early fall produce winter form adults that are in reproductive diapause.

Figure 1. 

Summer form of adult female goatweed butterfly, Anaea andria Scudder.


Credit: Jerry F. Butler, University of Florida
[Click thumbnail to enlarge.]

Figure 2. 

Summer form of male goatweed butterfly, Anaea andria Scudder.


Credit: Jerry F. Butler, University of Florida
[Click thumbnail to enlarge.]

Figure 3. 

Resting goatweed butterfly, Anaea andria Scudder.


Credit: Jerry F. Butler, University of Florida
[Click thumbnail to enlarge.]

Eggs are spherical and greenish-cream in color. Full-grown larvae are approximately 3.8 cm in length and are grey-green with many minute tubercles covering both the head and body. The head also has a small number of larger orange tubercles. The color and tuberculation of the larvae match the surface texture and appearance of twigs of some common host plants. Pupae are light green with darker green lines simulating a leaf-like texture. There is a small heavily sclerotized black anal ring just below (anterior to) the cremaster.

Figure 4. 

Egg of goatweed butterfly, Anaea andria Scudder.


Credit: Jerry F. Butler, University of Florida
[Click thumbnail to enlarge.]

Figure 5. 

Full grown caterpillar of goatweed butterfly, Anaea andria Scudder.


Credit: Jerry F. Butler, University of Florida
[Click thumbnail to enlarge.]

Figure 6. 

Pupa of goatweed butterfly, Anaea andria Scudder.


Credit: Jerry F. Butler, University of Florida
[Click thumbnail to enlarge.]

Life Cycle

The goatweed butterfly has two flights per year in the North with possibly three or four flights in parts of the South. Their flight is swift and erratic. Overwintering adults mate in the spring. Males wait for females in clearings or on ridge tops. Adults feed on sap flows, decaying fruits, and dung. Larval hosts for the goatweed butterfly are various species of plants in the genus Croton (Euphorbiaceae). A commonly used host-plant species in central Florida is silver croton, Croton argyranthemus Michx. a common inhabitant of long leaf pine (Pinus palustris Mill.) high pine communities. Goatweed butterflies are also found in other habitats -- including open wooded areas, swamps, prairie groves and along streams.

First and second instar larvae eat the leaf blade away from the midrib and rest at the tip. They attach fecal pellets with silk to their backs and to the base of the leaf midrib -- probably to repel ants and other predators. Older larvae fold and silk the sides of leaves together and hide inside with their heavily sclerotized heads blocking the entrance to the leaf roll.

Figure 7. 

Silver croton, Croton argyranthemus Michx., host for goatweed butterfly, Anaea andria Scudder.


Credit: Donald W. Hall, University of Florida
[Click thumbnail to enlarge.]

Figure 8. 

Second instar larva of goatweed butterfly, Anaea andria Scudder, resting at tip of leaf midrib.


Credit: Jerry F. Butler, University of Florida
[Click thumbnail to enlarge.]

Figure 9. 

Goatweed butterfly larvae (one on stem, one in leaf roll), Anaea andria Scudder.


Credit: Jerry F. Butler, University of Florida
[Click thumbnail to enlarge.]

The pine sandhill and scrub habitats that support silver croton are rapidly diminishing in Florida because of development. It is expected that goatweed butterfly populations will continue to decline locally as a result of this urban encroachment.

Selected References

  • Daniels JC. 2000. Butterflies 1: Butterflies of the Southeast. UF/IFAS. Card Set. SP 273

  • Harris L Jr. 1972. Butterflies of Georgia. University of Oklahoma Press. Norman, OK.

  • Heitzman JR, Heitzman JE. 1987. Butterflies and Moths of Missouri. Missouri Department of Conservation. Jefferson City, MO.

  • Iftner DC, Shuey JA, Calhoun JV. 1992. Butterflies and Skippers of Ohio. Ohio Biological Survey Bulletin New Series Vol. 9 No. 1.

  • Medley JC, Fasulo TR. (2002). Florida Butterfly Tutorials. University of Florida/IFAS. CD-ROM. SW 155.

  • Miller JY. 1992. The Common Names of North American Butterflies. Smithsonian Institution Press. Washington, D.C.

  • Opler PA, Krizek GO. 1984. Butterflies East of the Great Plains. The Johns Hopkins University Press. Baltimore, MD.

  • Riley TJ. 1988. Effect of larval photoperiod on incidence of adult seasonal forms in Anaea andria (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae). Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society 61: 224-227.

  • Riley TJ. 1988. Effect of larval photoperiod on mating and reproductive diapause in seasonal forms of Anaea andria (Nymphalidae). Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society 42: 263-268.

  • Scott JA. 1986. The Butterflies of North America. Stanford University Press. Stanford, CA.

  • Schull EM. 1987. The Butterflies of Indiana. Indiana Academy of Science. Indianapolis, IN.

Footnotes

1.

This document is EENY-055 (IN212), one of a series of Featured Creatures from the Entomology and Nematology Department, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida. Original publication date September 1998. Revised August 2010. Visit the EDIS Web Site at http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu.

2.

Donald W. Hall, professor, and Jerry F. Butler, professor, Entomology and Nematology Department, Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville.

The Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) is an Equal Opportunity Institution authorized to provide research, educational information and other services only to individuals and institutions that function with non-discrimination with respect to race, creed, color, religion, age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, political opinions or affiliations. For more information on obtaining other extension publications, contact your county Cooperative Extension service.

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Cooperative Extension Service, University of Florida, IFAS, Florida A. & M. University Cooperative Extension Program, and Boards of County Commissioners Cooperating. Nick T. Place, Dean.