Endangered
Papilio homerus
Papilio homerus
Papilio homerus is the largest butterfly species in the Western Hemisphere.
Appearance
Over the past half century, the Jamaican swallowtail has been featured on various postal stamps and the Jamaican $1000 bill. In the face of rapid habitat destruction from human disruption and illegal collecting, the Jamaican swallowtail is listed on the Threatened Swallowtail Butterflies of the World by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (Red List) and is protected under international and national level legislation. Its brown-black wings feature a large yellow band and blue and red spotting, making the butterfly easy to spot from far away.
The adult butterfly has been described by researchers as "gigantic and magnificent." Females are larger than males and can have a wingspan of 15 cm (6 in).
Range and habitat
P. Homerus is endemic to Jamaica, that is located in the Neotropical realm. It previously occupied half of the 14 parishes of Jamaica but can only be found as two or three small populations today. Habitat loss is a major concern due to rapid changes that have occurred in the Jamaican landscape.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet and breeding
New larvae hatch from the egg, consume the chorion, and feed on the leaf of oviposition. When the larvae reach the fourth instar, they move onto other, younger leaves to feed.
In crisis
The species is endangered and faces a potentially bleak future. Only two small populations of the Homerus swallowtail remain in a fraction of their original environment. Diablo, that is located 70 km from both of the other populations.
The disappearance of this population poses an ecological threat to the stability of the remaining two populations. Lehnert estimated the size of the eastern population at less than 50 adult individuals.
CITES lists this taxon on Appendix I. Confirm the current appendix on the CITES checklist.
Named moths and butterflies with a high threat category are often known from a small range and a thin series. Host-plant loss leaves little to recount.
Papilio homerus is Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Papilio homerus, Wikidata item Q1756867. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
