Schaus swallowtail butterfly

This is a photograph of a Schaus' swallowtail we have here in the Museum. The photograph was taken from above - you can see the upper surfaces of the butterfly. Compare this to the picture of the same butterfly taken from below. They are very different.

Many animals are coloured differently on different parts of their bodies. Most fish are paler on their underside than they are on the top half of their bodies. This is the same as the Schaus' swallowtail - why do you think this might be?

This is a photograph of a Schaus' swallowtail we have here in the Museum. The photograph was taken from below - you can see the lower surfaces of the butterfly. Compare this to the picture of the same butterfly taken from above. They are very different.

Many animals are coloured differently on different parts of their bodies. Most fish are paler on their underside than they are on the top half of their bodies. This is the same as the Schaus' swallowtail - why do you think this might be?

The Schaus' swallowtail is a large pretty butterfly. This has made it popular with butterfly collectors - unfortunately, over-collecting is one of the reasons it is now an endangered species.

Breeding programmes have been set up to increase the numbers of this species in the wild. Many hundreds of butterflies have been released from these programmes, and butterfly numbers may now be beginning to increase again.

This is a photograph of some of the butterflies and other insects we have on display here at the Museum. Can you count them all?

Many of these specimens are very old. They were collected when it was not known that collecting could damage butterfly populations. The Museum takes care not to collect rare species, and never collects more of the commoner species than it needs for research. Unfortunately, there are many people who buy and sell insects that are taken from the wild - this is a problem for endangered species like the Schaus' swallowtail.

This is a drawing of one of moths on display in the Museum. Although it looks quite a lot like the Schaus swallowtail, it is actually a moth.

Moths and butterflies belong to the insect order Lepidoptera. There is no real scientific difference between moths and butterflies but we still split them because:

• Butterflies tend to be active during the day, are more brightly coloured, and have simple antennae ending in a small swelling or 'club'.
• Moths tend to be active during the night, are less brightly coloured, and have a variety of different antennae, but never those with a 'club'.

The Schaus' swallowtail butterfly is native to the hardwood forests found in Florida. As you can see from the map, this is quite a small area.

Scientists in Florida are now doing as much as they can to increase the number of Schaus' swallowtails in the wild. They are trying to encourage people to plant the right sort of tree so that swallowtails, bred in the laboratory, can be released into the wild. Strangely it seems that golf courses have been found to be about the best butterfly habitats in Florida!