Captive Breeding and Habitat Restoration for the Schaus Swallowtail Following Hurricane Andrew

Emmel, Thomas

The Schaus Swallowtail butterfly, Papilio (Heraclides) aristodemus ponceanusSchaus, is a rare tropical element of the U.S. fauna which was described from the tropicalhardwood hammocks of the Miami area in southern Dade County, Florida, in 1911. After1924, it was extinct on the mainland and persisted only in the Florida Keys. Urbanizationand habitat clearing eliminated populations in the Middle and Lower Keys by the 1960's.By 1984, the total known population was restricted to less than 70 individuals. Thedistribution at that time was already restricted to only Northern Key Largo and severalmuch smaller keys in Biscayne Bay inside Biscayne National Park. Int~nsive surveys andfield work sponsored by the Fish & Wildlife Service and the Florida Game & Fresh WaterFish Commission's Nongame Wildlife Program via contracts and grants to our researchteam at the University of Florida allowed the discovery by" 1986 that mosquito pesticidespraying by Monroe County was severely impacting the species on Key Largo and wasprobably a key factor in preventing its re-establishment in other parts of the historic range(from the former hammocks of Dade County to Key West). The halting of most mosquitocontrol spraying in the vicinity of Crocodile Lake National Wildlife Refuge on NorthernKey Largo allowed the partial recovery of the species there. [...]