Conservation of the Homerus Swallowtail

Conservation of the Homerus Swallowtail

Despite existing logging prohibitions, in 1979 a government-sponsored company began cutting 2,000 hectares of rainforest a year to plant  A 1984 film about the vanishing swallowtail prompted new research and conservation efforts. In 1991, Jamaica established a new national park around remaining swallowtail habitat after Hurricane Gilbert destroyed most planted Caribbean pines. This allowed natural vegetation to re-establish the rainforest, and the butterfly's host plants rapidly returned.

In the 1980s, UF scientists began studying Homerus Swallowtail ecology with University of the West Indies lepidopterists. Thomas C. Emmel and Jaret C. Daniels later helped establish captive breeding and educational programs in Jamaica to help local conservation efforts. This led to the establishment of John Crow-Blue Mountain National Park, which uses the Homerus Swallowtail as its flagship symbol.

The endangered  (Papilio homerus), once common in is struggling to recover with the aid of forest conservation efforts. This large (approximately 6 inches (150 mm) wide) endangered butterfly once inhabited 7 of the 13 parishes of Jamaica and was relatively common in the 1930s. Today it occurs only in two parishes where themeet the  in eastern Jamaica and in isolated places inof western Jamaica. Larvae of the Homerus Swallowtail require humidity close to 100% and inhabit wet limestone forests and lower montane rainforest. Destruction of these forests led to decline of the species.