The Mangrove Buckeye gets is named for is host plant, the Black Mangrove. In Grand Harbor we have plenty of Black Mangroves. You know this shrub by its pencil-like roots (pneumatophores) sticking up vertically. The Mangrove Butterfly is here year round and there is about 3 generation a year. You can see this butterfly around Grand Harbor and nectoring in the Nature Gardens. It can be confused with the Common Buckeye but if anyone sees a Common Buckeye in Grand Harbor let me know because I never seen one here.

Its wing spans about 2 inches and is basically brown. It has four eyespots on each side on the upper side of its wing. The largest eyespot on the forewing has an orange out line and the Common Buckeye doesn’t. The eyespots are supposed to frighten predators. The caterpillar is small black and slender with bluish black rows of harmless spines and it crawls along on orange legs. The eggs are laid singly on the new tender leaves of the Black Mangrove.

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Don Morris