A Celebration of Biodiversity Series
The preserve is very excited to welcome new staff member Samuel James in his new role as Manager, Eastern Forest Education. With his August 2025 start the preserve is pleased to continue our blog with a new initiative called: A Celebration of Biodiversity Series. This visual series will highlight the multitudinous of life in the preserve's eastern forests & prairies whose existence, continued health and services provided are an integral part of humanity's life support system. Enjoy!
The giant swallowtail is North America’s largest butterfly with wing spans reaching over 7 inches across. Its larvae (caterpillar), like so many other species of moth & butterfly, are fascinating masters of deception and self-defense. The larvae are very convincing bird dropping mimics complete with areas of sheen to make them look like a fresh dropping to avoid being eaten! If molested they thrust out a fleshy, forked horn-like structure called an osmeterium from the body segment behind the head which sprays foul smelling butyric acid to repel attacks from invertebrate predators. Here in the northeast, they feed on plants in the Rue Family (Rutaceae), which includes prickly ash and wafer ash (Ptelea trifoliata) and have two broods from May to mid-October. Further south they also feed on orange trees, also in the Rue Family
