SHADOWSHINE, AN ANIMAL ADVENTURE
  • Home
    • Information for Retailers
  • Reviews
  • About Johnny Armstrong
  • Blog: Canopy Connection
  • In the News
    • Union Parish Library Event
    • Release-Ouachita Parish Library Event

Canopy Connection

Giant Swallowtail Butterfly and Caterpillar

8/10/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
The Giant Swallowtail Butterfly, Papilio cresphontes, is the largest butterfly species in North America. While its North American presence is primarily restricted to the southern United States, its southern native range extends as far as Columbia and Venezuela in northern South America.
Because this butterfly’s larval host plant includes members of the Citrus family, it is regarded as a pest by many citrus growers.  Giant Swallowtail caterpillars can eat all the leaves of small plants, which is sometimes lethal to little citrus trees.  Our ranch in northwest Louisiana (Wafer Creek Ranch) has only one species representing the family, Wafer Ash (aka, Common Hoptree), Ptelea trifoliata. Although uncommon on our land, if it were destroyed or otherwise lost, there would be no more of these dazzling flying insects so important in their pollen distribution from flower to flower.
Picture
The caterpillar exemplifies to me the peculiar concoction of beauty and freakiness. The lumpy area at one end of its body is a fake head forming a hood-like structure with amazing geometric designs and beautiful fake eyes. The real head is in front and largely tucked under the expanded hood. Check out those “eyes” and see if you agree with me that they look a bit sleepy and mammalian like. As with many insects, such fake ornaments are an evolutionary protective measure to intimidate would-be predators. JA

Picture
About the Author
Conservationist and retired medical doctor (pathology), Johnny Armstrong and his wife Karen and Opal (k-nine) live within a Nature Conservancy protected old-growth forest and woodland near Ruston, Louisiana. Shadowshine is his first novel.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Johnny Armstrong, Author

    #Biodiversity advocate. Ecosystem Restorationist. Steward of an old-growth forest and woodland in northern Louisiana. #ForestFolkMatter #ScienceMatters


    Rescuing Biodiversity (publishing in June 2023) tells the story of Johnny's attempts at Wafer Creek Ranch to preserve a vanishing Louisiana ecosystem and restore the animal and plant species that once lived there.
    Picture
    “An avowed student of life and restoration ecology, Johnny Armstrong expertly teaches us how to restore an imperiled southern ecosystem based on deep research, firsthand experience, and delighted observation of the species that return to his beloved Wafer Creek Ranch. Driving his devotion is the alarming truth that loss of biodiversity poses a threat on par with climate change and his impassioned belief that society can alter that trajectory, one acre at a time.”
    Cindy Brown, Executive Director
    Land Trust for Louisiana
    MORE INFO

    Shadowshine is Johnny's first book in the genres of literary fiction and animal fiction.
    Picture
    “Up there on your bookshelf between Tolkien and Watership Down is where this book belongs.  As an anthropomorphic adventure that winds through the realm of animals possessing courage, savagery, perseverance, and ultimately wisdom in the face of mounting evil threats – humans disconnected from the natural world – the tale is relevant, if not necessary.”
    Kelby Ouchley, Author
    Bayou Diversity: Nature & People in the Louisiana Bayou Country

    MORE REVIEWS

    Find an Indie Bookstore

    Picture

    Archives

    April 2022
    March 2022
    January 2022
    April 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019

    Categories

    All
    Essays
    Gratitude
    Interviews
    Reviews
    Wafer Creek Ranch

    RSS Feed

CONNECT WITH JOHNNY & THE FOREST-FOLK

JOIN US AT THESE SOCIAL NETWORKS

Picture

Shadowshine, An Animal Adventure
by Johnny Armstrong
ISBN-10: 1771834609
ISBN-13: 978-1771834605


#ForestFolkMatter #BookstoRead
#Fiction #Literature #LiteraryFiction #AnimalFiction


    Join the canopy connection

Subscribe
BLOG: The Canopy Connection

Official Site of Shadowshine, An Animal Adventure ©Johnny Armstrong
Website Developed and Managed by Freelance Creative Support Services

  • Home
    • Information for Retailers
  • Reviews
  • About Johnny Armstrong
  • Blog: Canopy Connection
  • In the News
    • Union Parish Library Event
    • Release-Ouachita Parish Library Event