Florida Interlude

Our visits to Florida always turn up interesting revelations in natural history. A brief stay in late December presented Diane and me with three small wonders.

Puss caterpillar (Megalopyge opercularis).  Its long hair gives it a
cat-like appearance. 

While hiking at the Wakodahatcheee Wetlands in Delray Beach, Florida we saw a longhaired caterpillar crawling along a handrail of the boardwalk. It was a Puss Caterpillar (Megalopyge opercularis) the larval form of Southern Flannel Moth. Puss Caterpillars got their name because they look like miniature versions of long-furred cats. The name for the genus, Megalopyge, translated big rump, comes from the long hairs of the caterpillar combining to form a tail. This caterpillar is quite dangerous because those long hairs conceal stinging spines. If you make contact with these spines, they release a venom that immediately raises red welts on the skin then cause severe pain, nausea, fever, rapid heart rate or even convulsions. These fascinating and dangerous caterpillars metamorphose into a very hairy moth that we did not get to see. The Southern Flannel Moth ranges throughout the Southeastern US and west into Texas.

Psychotria nervosa (what a marvelous name) or Wild Coffee, is a plant native to Florida, Central America, the West Indies and South America. We found Wild Coffee growing in abundance in the coastal hammock at Lantana Beach Nature Preserve. Wild Coffee bears shiny green leaves and produces white flowers. These flowers develop into red fruits, each of which contains two hemispherical seeds that resemble the “beans” of its relative, true coffee (Coffea arabica). Birds eat the bright fruits and disperse the seeds in their droppings. The small seeds of Wild Coffee is not a good substitute for regular coffee because the seeds do not contain caffeine and drinks brewed from them taste bad and cause headaches.

Wild Coffee (Psychotria nervosa) plant with fruits.

Wild Coffee fruit cut in half showing its two seeds.

Wild coffee seeds.  They look very much like
regular coffee beans but much smaller.

In the late afternoon of a short winter day, we found a spectacular butterfly, the Ruddy Daggerwing (Marpesia petreus). Ruddy Daggerwings are found from Brazil, through Central America, the West Indies and into south Florida. A few even make it to south Texas and Arizona. When we first saw this butterfly flying fast and low in a park in Palm Beach County, we thought it was a Monarch or Julia. As we approached, it was clearly something different. The Ruddy Daggerwing is bright orange with dark brown lines of the upper side of the wings. Each hindwing has a long tail, the dagger in its name. The underside of the wings are brown and resemble dead leaves. Ruddy Daggerwings lay their eggs on the fig (Ficus) trees that are abundant in South Florida.

Ruddy Daggerwing feeding on the nectar of Spanish Needles (Bidens pilosa) 

People from around the country and around the world go to Florida in winter. Florida is warm, green and bright when many places are cold, brown and dim. However, beyond the weather and landscaped housing developments, Florida offers a peek at the tropics, a whiff of rain forests from the south.