Cycad
Guides
Aulacaspis yasumatsui
cycad aulacaspis scale, cycad scale, sago palm scale, Asian cycad scale
Aulacaspis yasumatsui is a highly destructive armored scale insect native to Southeast Asia that has become a globally invasive pest of cycads. First described from Thailand in 1977, it was detected in Florida in 1996 and has since spread to numerous countries across six continents, causing widespread mortality of ornamental and native cycad populations. The species exhibits extreme sexual dimorphism in body form and produces multiple generations annually in warm climates, with populations capable of reaching densities that completely encrust host fronds and ultimately kill the plant through depletion of photosynthetic tissue and nonstructural carbohydrates.
Eumaeus atala
Atala, Atala butterfly, Atala hairstreak, coontie hairstreak
The Atala butterfly is a small, colorful lycaenid butterfly unique within its range for its aposematic coloration and exclusive association with cycad host plants. Once considered the most conspicuous insect in South Florida in 1888, it was believed extinct by the 1950s due to overharvesting of its sole native host plant, coontie (Zamia integrifolia), for starch production. Rediscovered in 1979 on a Miami barrier island, the species has recovered dramatically through conservation efforts and the popularity of coontie as an ornamental landscape plant, becoming common enough in southeast Florida to occasionally be regarded as a pest. The butterfly sequesters toxic cycasin compounds from its host, rendering all life stages unpalatable to predators.
butterflyhairstreakLycaenidaecycadcoontieZamiaaposematic-colorationchemical-defenseconservationendangered-species-recoveryFlorida-endemicpine-rocklandhost-plant-specialistsequestrationurban-wildlifeornamental-pestfreeze-dried-dietex-situ-conservationreintroductionfire-dependent-ecosystemnative-plant-landscapingcycasin-toxicitymultivoltineterritorial-malescorematasound-producing-pupaePharaxonotha
Pharaxonotha is a genus of pleasing fungus beetles in the family Erotylidae, established by Reitter in 1875. Most species are obligate symbionts of New World cycads, living and breeding within male pollen cones where they consume pollen and cone tissues, and serving as specialized pollinators by transferring pollen to female cones. The genus exhibits a remarkable coevolutionary relationship with cycads dating back approximately 200 million years to the early Jurassic. One species, P. kirschii, is an exception, inhabiting forest floor litter and stored foods rather than cycad cones. The beetles possess infrared receptors on their antennae that enable them to detect thermogenic cones of their host plants.