Eumaeus childrenae

At the right time at the right place they are not rare because they tend to make nests of huge numbers of caterpillars. I guess the problem has to do with the countries where it comes from. Neither of the countries it flies in is known to export or play a big role in the butterfly market except for Mexico where there is legal issues. Hopefully jshuey reads this and can speak about the situation in Belize if it exists there (Actually I just see the range map from Mexico to Honduras, I don't know if it is a west coast species or also covers the east coast countries and Yucatán Peninsula). I have picked up some eumaeus here and there, would need to check if E. childrenae is amongst them.

And here they are available: thornesinsects.com/en/search_results.html?category_id=&min_price=0&max_price=999999&insect_name=Eumaeus&insect_locality=&insect_sex=&search2=Find+Insects

In Belize - rarely collected. Just three wild-caught records from the Maya Mountains.


But we suspect that is is not rare in nature - just hard to find. Jan Meerman got a call once from a nursery that had a caterpillar infestation on a cycad. Jan took a look and took home about 30 larvae which all emerged. He kept about 10 of them, and let the rest of them loose at his place. He never saw the adults again, but found at least one batch of pupae on the hostplnt growing at his house about a month later - again - over 20 pupal skins - and he never saw an adult. I don't know what they do, but the butterflies stay out of sight.

John

I would agree, it is a very beautiful species and seems much larger than the atala that I have. The prices on the specimens would indicate it is not extremely rare, but possibly just difficult to obtain legally especially if it's range is restricted to Mexico. The one I saw for sale was said to be from Mexico, so I did not buy it. It was a USA dealer but since all collecting is illegal in Mexico I am not sure how he could have gotten it without violating some law.

Bradleigh

Thank you John for the further explanations. Here is my Eumaeus toxea from El Salvador. They are nice and very large Lycaenidae. I am sure all of these species are larger than Eumaeus atala. I was once in the breeding facility for Eumaeus atala of the University of Florida. The caterpillars are a delight to see. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me at that moment, maybe another time when I pass in Gainesville.