Why Does This Endangered Butterfly Thrive After Hurricanes?

Why Does This Endangered Butterfly Thrive After Hurricanes? Marina Wang, bioGraphic Get our newsletter! Get our newsletter! In 1992, Hurricane Andrew, one of the most devastating tropical cyclones in U.S. history, ravaged Elliott Key, Florida.

"Most of the island was covered in seawater, and about a quarter of the trees were either toppled or completely broken," says Sarah Steele Cabrera, a biologist at the University of Florida. "There was not a leaf to be seen." At the time, conservationists fretted that the enormous hurricane was going to wipe out the last of the island's Schaus' swallowtails (Papilio aristodemus), a species of endangered black-and-yellow butterfly native to southern Florida and now found only on Elliott Key and nearby Key Largo.



And the butterfly's numbers on the island did take an initial hit from the storm. But only four years later, much to scientists' surprise, the population jumped dramatically. Now, a 36-year-long data set shows that Schaus' swallowtails saw similar post-hurricane population bumps after two subsequent hurricanes: Wilma in 2005 and Irma in 2017.

In 1976, the Schaus' swallowtail butterfly became one of the first insects to be listed under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, Cabrera says.

This critically endangered butterfly prefers...

Marina Wang, bioGraphic.