Gardeners are being urged to plant and maintain citrus trees in order to preserve and protect the endangered and native Cayman Swallowtail Butterfly, under threat because of Hurricane Ivan.
The Cayman Swallowtail Butterfly is categorised as an endemic sub-species butterfly, which means that it is found only in Grand Cayman, although it does have close cousins in the Sister Islands, explained Mr. Tony Cox, who owns and runs The Butterfly Farm with his wife Lori.
‘The interesting thing is that it is not even found in Cuba, which has one of the most diverse ecosystems in the world. This makes their survival here critical,’ said Mr. Cox.
The host plant for the Cayman Swallowtail is the citrus tree, in particular lime trees, he said.
Since Hurricane Ivan passed through last September a great deal of citrus trees has been lost or diminished all over the island.
‘Even the nurseries are in short supply for citrus trees. There is no part of the island that hasn’t lost a fair amount of citrus, said Mr. Cox.
While he did admit that some are starting to grow back, Mr. Cox said it is a slow process of re-growing these trees.
Most of the trees were defoliated and were destroyed under seawater as they don’t tolerate salt well. Other toxins in the seawater also killed some of them.
‘This certainly has affected the numbers of the Cayman Swallowtail,’ he said. ‘The numbers are depleted. The question is what happens over the next period of time. They need their host plant,’ he asserted.
While no numbers are known, Mr. Cox said an environmental studies student from England who previously did some volunteer work at the Butterfly Farm is to return to Cayman shortly to do research on the numbers of the Swallowtail and an assessment of the species recovery or non-recovery.
The student, from Plymouth University, is putting together a proposal for her work and has been in touch with Dr. Askew, who did the primary research on butterflies on the island and is a leading expert.
Mr. Cox said the local elementary and primary schools have also been very supportive in the butterfly’s plight.
‘We have been trying to emphasise the relationship between the citrus trees and the Cayman Swallowtail and encourage people not to get rid of the caterpillars if they see them on the trees,’ he said.
The Swallowtail is totally dependant during its caterpillar stage on the leaves of citrus trees, which does no harm to the tree.
The Swallowtail is 140 million years old, which is a long, long time considering humans have only been around for about a million, said Mr. Cox.
The Swallowtail has a beautiful pattern of yellow and what is perceived as black. However, the black hue is actually a dark brown. It also has bluish dots on its hind wings.
Swallowtail caterpillars, however, are not quite as attractive because of a clever strategy to avoid predators.
Butterflies are highly predated, but they do have some strategies to help keep them safe. One of these is to mimic a bird dropping when it is a caterpillar and the Chrysalis (the cocoon in which the caterpillar changes into a butterfly) resembles a dried up citrus tree leaf.
Mr. Cox asserted that butterflies play a very important role in nature as they, along with bees, are the major cross-pollinators of plants.
‘Bees and butterflies are responsible for 80 per cent of cross pollination in flowering plants. Without them we would not have life as we know it and we would be gasping for air,’ he said.
However, bees have been suffering depletion because of parasitic mites in recent decades, so there is more reliance than ever on the butterfly for cross-pollination purposes.
Tour guides at the Butterfly Farm on Lawrence Boulevard, off West Bay Road, inform the local public that visits the farm about how best they can help to sustain butterflies in their neighbourhood.
‘We get a tremendous response from people on this,’ said Mr. Cox.
The Butterfly Farm is open seven days a week from 8.30am to 4pm.
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