Alabama Butterfly Atlas

Brown Elfins are Alabama’s plainest elfins—not tails or frostings decorate their wings.  They have only a brief spring flight and seldom wander far from their hosts. They generally stay close to the ground and nectar from a variety of small, spring-blooming flowers.

In the eastern U.S., Brown Elfin caterpillars typically eat buds and flowers of plants in the Heath family. In Alabama, Mountain Laurel is the heath they are known to use, although others may also be chosen.  Females place eggs on or near bud clusters, and young caterpillars bore into immature flowers to reach developing pollen granules, which are protein rich. Older larvae eat flowers. As the bloom cycle ends, so does the caterpillars' eating phase.  Chrysalides erst in ground litter where they spend the winter.   

In 2009, Brown Elfins' known range extended only into north Georgia, and one historic record placed them in north Alabama. It was shocking news when they were discovered in Florida's Panhandle, roughly 200 miles further south.  Wayne Barger and Brian Holt found and documented Brown Elfins in Alabama's Red Hills in 2012. Other small populations have been found at Tannehill State Park, the Bankhead National Forest, and Cane Creek Canyon Nature Preserve. Whether they persist is not known.