The plight of imperiled butterfly species around the world continues to generate increased public interest and funding support. Recent management plans created to conserve several critically endangered butterflies mirror the aggressive, creative and cooperative nature of those historically implemented for traditional vertebrate conservation programs. More and more, the popularity and staff expertise of living butterfly exhibits at zoos, museums, and butterfly conservatories worldwide have prompted such facilities to take an active and leading role in research, education and species' recovery. Although not yet fully realized, the outcome of such ambitious recovery measures has helped bring invertebrate conservation to the forefront and led to cautious but optimistic forecasts for the future of the species' involved. By far one of the most successful and highly publicized projects has centered on the only endangered swallowtail butterfly in the U. S. The flamboyant Schaus Swallowtail (Papilio aristodemus ponceanus) is a large, colorful butterfly endemic to the tropical hardwood hammocks of southern Florida. Once found from the greater Miami area to Key West, its range and numbers have steadily decreased over the last half century due primarily to expanding urbanization, habitat destruction, and the use of mosquito control pesticides. By 1984, it was reduced in range to extreme northern Key Largo and several small Keys inside Biscayne National Park. The remaining isolated populations harbored fewer than 70 adults and prompted the butterfly's official listing to be upgraded from threatened to endangered that same year. The additional threat of major natural disasters to the species' extremely restricted range was realized on 24 August 1992, when the megastorm Hurricane Andrew slammed into southern Florida destroying or heavily damaging all habitat areas fostering remaining butterfly populations, reducing the total wild adult population emerging in 1993 to less than 20 individuals. Fortuitously, just two months prior the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service had given the University of Florida permission to remove 100 eggs as the starter nucleus of a large-scale captive propagation program. As a result, this captive holding became the only readily available source for livestock reintroductions and prompted the rapid expansion of existing livestock breeding to become one of the largest endangered invertebrate captive propagation programs in the U.S. Throughout the project, Butterfly World in Coconut Creek provided monetary assistance and served as a south Florida base of operations for all reintroduction efforts. To date, the recovery efforts have been remarkably successful, with hundreds of butterflies reared annually for release into suitable and protected habitat areas in 1995, 96, and 97, and with the released butterflies subsequently reproducing well in all new colony sites. Following these three years of reintroductions, as of June 1997 the butterfly occupied sites stretching from the south Miami area in Dade County to Lower Matecumbe Key in the Middle Keys of Monroe County, across a geographic range of 57 miles. Thus the reintroductions have resulted in a quadrupling of the species geographic range from what it was in the twenty years prior to the destruction of Hurricane Andrew. Additionally, the total annual wild adult Schaus Swallowtail population rose to over 1,200 butterflies as of the 1997 flight season. Still, the celebration of the project's success was tapered with lingering concerns regarding existing habitat quality and long-term management as well as efficient gene flow between populations. In early 1998, under the direct funding support from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), habitat improvement was initiated by the planting of hundreds of wild lime trees (Zanthoxylum fagara), one of two native larval host plants, within several selected Key Largo colonies. The ultimate goal was to improve and expand the suitable breeding habitat available to the butterfly within already existing protected colony sites and allow for the natural increase of wild population numbers to sufficientand stable levels. While habitat improvement was currently being addressed, efficient gene flow between the numerous existing and newly established colonies remained a critical concern. Historically, the Schaus Swallowtail enjoyed an intact range of pristine tropical hardwood hammock habitat throughout much of the Florida Keys broken only by periodic but negotiable water barriers. Individuals from neighboring colonies regularly infiltrated each other, allowing for more or less consistent gene flow between populations. Additionally, wild population numbers annually waxed and waned, creating periodic localized extinctions that could be overcome by founder individuals wandering in from nearby colonies. Today, the remaining Schaus Swallowtail populations no longer have that simple luxury. Adult butterflies now have to deal with urban development that has left the Florida Keys a patchwork of isolated and often distant pockets of suitable habitat, making contact between colonies an ever increasingly difficult task. Since all newly established colonies were derived from a relatively small initial nucleus of material obtained from a single colony, all clearly face the continued threat of genetic bottlenecking as well as unforeseen future natural disasters. The opportunity to develop a viable corridor system to encourage adult butterfly movement and regular gene flow between colonies presented itself in Spring of 1999 through grant funding from the U. S. Golf Association and the NFWF, and with the direct cooperation of the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the University of Florida, and two private golf clubs. The project, funded for three years, involves improving and restoring remaining tropical hardwood hammock habitat on the golf course property of Sombrero Country Club in Marathon and Cheeca Lodge on Islamorada. Native larval host plants and adult nectar sources are being planted to create sufficient natural habitat suitable to maintain transient adult butterflies, encourage adult movement and gene flow between existing colonies, and allow for the natural establishment of new breeding colonies within the Keys. Central to the project's success is the cooperation achieved between the government agencies, private organizations, and private landowners involved, including the current development of two safe harbor agreements. If the current project proceeds as expected and additional funding becomes available for two more years of captive propagation, reintroduction, and monitoring, the Schaus Swallowtail will occur over a broad enough geographic range in protected habitat areas and in sufficient numbers outside of the Biscayne National Park population that a major catastrophic event such as a hurricane no longer threatens extinction or major depletion of the species. At such a point, the recommendation will be made to downgrade the butterfly's status from endangered to threatened, making it the first invertebrate successfully removed from the U. S. endangered species list. The Jamaican Giant Swallowtail butterfly (Papilio homerus) faces a much more difficult struggle for survival. It was listed as one of four endangered swallowtail species in the IUCN Red Data Book (Morris and Collins, 1985). Subsequently, all collection and trade of the species was banned under CITES, Apendix I, 1987, and under the Jamaican Wildlife Act, 1988. It is the largest true swallowtail (and largest butterfly overall) in the Americas and arguably one of the most spectacular butterflies in the world. The Jamaican Giant Swallowtail is a colorful species, with bold and distinctive broad yellow bands on a black background, large tails, and hindwings trimmed with iridescent blue scaling. The species is endemic to the island of Jamaica. Historically, it was recorded from seven of Jamaica's 13 parishes. Currently, the butterfly is found only in two isolated and decreasing population strongholds: a western population located in the Cockpit Country of Trelawny Parish, and a larger eastern population at the crossroads of the John Crow and Blue Mountains in St. Thomas and Portland Parishes. The majority of the current available scientific knowledge on the biology and ecology of the butterfly to date has come from research conducted on the eastern population. Relatively little definitive information is available on the size and condition of the western population, owing to its remoteness and the excessively difficult terrain of the Cockpit country. The Jamaican Giant Swallowtail butterfly typically inhabits two major vegetative zones, wet limestone forest at elevations of 300 to 700 meters and lower montane rain forest at higher elevations up to 1,070 meters. A third zone, the montane mist forest, occurs above the lower montane rain forest and consists of the upper reaches and peaks of the Blue Mountains. Although not considered a habitat for the Jamaican Giant Swallowtail, the integrity of the montane mist forest serves as a critical structural component for the supply of water and atmospheric moisture to the lower elevation plant communities. Work by Thomas W. Turner, Eric Garraway, and John Parnel over the past decade and a half, has provided much of the available information on the species' biology, life history, behavior, ecology, and threats to extinction. With theJamaican Giant Swallowtail's population within the two presently known localities occupying only a small number of square kilometers, there is great concern for the species continued survival in Jamaica. Localized forest disturbance due to subsistence farming and large-scale land clearing for commercial forestry remain the two main threats to the butterfly's habitat. Although damage to existing Caribbean pine plantations by Hurricane Gilbert in 1988 resulted in a temporary and welcomed reprieve to habitat destruction, there was much concern about resumed forestry activities. Fortunately in 1992, Jamaica Conservation and Development Trust (JCDT) in association with the Nature Conservancy worked to establish the Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park, the nation's first designated terrestrial park. Recent collaboration between researchers at the University of the West Indies and the University of Florida has helped shed additional light onto the butterfly's current population density, adult movement, egg and larval mortality, and captive breeding possibilities. Although major obstacles have been overcome to insure the continued survival of the Jamaican Giant Swallowtail, much hard work still lies ahead. Continued future cooperation between government agencies, universities, conservation organizations, zoos and aquariums and butterfly houses are needed to ensure this spectacular symbol of Jamaica's autonomy and natural resources is around for generations to come. Unlike the Jamaican Giant Swallowtail, the Karner Blue (Lycaeides Melissa samuelis) is not a large, showy species. It is nonetheless an ideal representative of the rapidly declining pine barren and oak savannah habitat in which its sole larval host, wild lupine can be found. Once widespread from Minnesota to New Hampshire, the diminutive butterfly has become severely restricted in range primarily due to continuing urban development, agricultural expansion and fire suppression. The Karner Blue was federally listed as an endangered species in 1992 and has recently become the focus of several innovative and aggressive conservation projects. Mitch Magdich and other biologists at the Toledo Zoo are currently involved in a breeding and reintroduction program that will bring the Karner Blue back to Ohio, a state in which the species has not been recorded in over a decade. The Toledo Zoo and Ohio Department of Natural Resources are involved in a cooperative venture with neighboring officials from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources to remove a small number of female butterflies each year from protected population strongholds in Michigan. The captured females serve as initial starter stock for the Toledo Zoo's captive breeding program and ultimately future Ohio reintroductions. Additional action to save the species is underway in Wisconsin with the progressive Karner Blue Habitat Conservation Program. Led by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, the project involves a unique group of some 26 partners representing state agencies, conservationorganizations, county forests, utility and forestry companies and private landowners. The plan is the first statewide habitat conservation plan developed for an endangered species in the nation and involves over 260,000 acres of land. Cooperating partners are encouraged to selectively manage their land in appropriate ways that promote viable wild lupine and Karner Blue butterfly habitat. In return, the plan authorizes an incidental take permit for normal lawful and management activities on all non-federal lands involved. Such agreements encourage participation and active dialogue between private landowners and government agencies on a non-adversarial basis and absolve the fear of prohibitory regulations or penalties. Such programs also represent exciting new models for the future of invertebrate conservation worldwide. Cooperation and collaboration between conservation organizations, county, state and federal agencies, private landowners, businesses, universities, zoos, and butterfly conservatories continue to pave new ground and lead to every growing and promising species conservation.