Should it be wiped out by an ecological disaster, as almost occurred six years ago, there would be no natural source of Schaus' swallowtails to repopulate the island. Schaus' shares Elliott Key with two similar looking swallowtails. The giant swallowtail flies synchronously with Schaus', but can easily be identified by its larger size and more powerful flight. Schaus' swallowtails usually have slow fluttering flight, to maneuver through the dense jungle of tropical hardwood hammock while avoiding lethal spider webs. While giant swallowtail larvae would feed on any citrus tree, Schaus' larvae can be raised only on wild lime and torchwood.
Females especially prize the latter for oviposition.
Therefore, Schaus' require these host plants and the thick hardwood hammock, which provides a relatively cool, shady microclimate. In captivity a female can lay up to 400 eggs. Most of the eggs in nature are eaten by predators, or parasitized by wasps as larvae. The population of the Elliott tree snail declined but survived and continues to reproduce. Remarkably, Elliott Key's Schaus' population survived Hurricane Andrew with only a little help from us.