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Bahamas Butterfly Species Discovered In Florida

pink-spot sulphur butterfly

South Florida has just gained a new wildlife species, one that had been hiding in plain sight in neighborhoods from Homestead to southern Palm Beach County.

Say hello to the pink-spot sulphur butterfly. Like a winged member of the witness protection program, the butterfly had been living incognito in South Florida because of its superficial resemblance to two other species.

The pink-spot’s presence in South Florida was confirmed in the past two weeks, thanks to a scientist’s patience in examining hundreds of thousands of specimens, a Facebook post to the butterfly community and a West Boca butterfly gardener who likes to photograph visiting pollinators.

While going through dried butterflies collected in South Florida, Andrew Warren, senior collections manager for the University of Florida’s McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity found five unidentified specimens of the pink-spot sulphur, previously thought to live only in Cuba and some islands of the Bahamas. The specimens, taken between 1951 and 1985, had been intermixed with a bunch of samples of a similar species.

Posted in Lifestyle

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