SBBT Associate Clive Huggins has reported on his 5-week sojourn in Vanua Levu researching the newly described Natewa Swallowtail Papilio natewa. A forest species, the butterfly’s foodplant has been found and is being identified. Breeding year-round but very narrowly distributed on a remote peninsula, the species needs to be protected from overseas collectors. Details here.

Two Master’s students, Susie Hills and Hamish Lillywhite are starting work on the conditions needed by the British Swallowtail and its foodplant, Milk-parsley, in East Anglia’s fens. Their projects are a direct result of our 2017 workshop, the first step in a partnership between SBBT and the University of East Anglia’s School of Biological Sciences.

SBBT is delighted to announce World Swallowtail Day, taking place this year on Sunday 9th June. All are welcome to register their local event or come to Wheatfen Reserve in Norfolk for the global launch. Reserves, zoos, butterfly houses and botanical gardens worldwide will join hands to celebrate swallowtails and birdwings and help us to promote conservation projects.

Fieldwork on Jamaica’s Homerus Swallowtail has been recorded in a new video by John Parnell and published on the SBBT project page today. In this SBBT-sponsored initiative, Eric Garraway’s team take tiny wing samples to test for DNA differences between two populations. The results will steer conservation planning for this CITES Appendix 1 endangered species.