The Chequered Sedge-skipper (Hesperilla mastersi) is one of around 125 Australian species belonging to the family Hesperiidae (Skippers and Darts). Most Skippers are small, brown and often difficult to distinguish, making them the butterfly equivalent of the birdwatchers’ “Little Brown Jobs”. Many members of the public completely overlook them, or mistake them for moths, and …
I have updated Photo Gallery with the photos from my 3 most recent butterflying trips, namely : Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney on 07/05/2019 Glenbrook and Emu Plains on 17/05/2019 Mount Annan Botanic Garden on 21/05/2019 The following species pages have had photos and/or video added : Graphium macleayanum (Macleay’s Swallowtail) – video Elodina angulipennis (Southern Pearl-white) – …
See also my blog post describing the Mount Annan Botanic Gardens site. Most years I try to get out to the Mount Annan Botanic Gardens during April or May, as in my experience that’s the best time to go looking for butterflies there. 2019’s trip was on 21st May, which turned out to be a …
Located just past Campbelltown in Sydney’s outer south-west, the Mount Annan Botanic Garden is well worth a visit, particularly during the autumn when some of its more interesting butterfly species are on the wing, though I have even had some success there during the winter months. All the photos on this post were taken in …
Winter is coming! The weather around Sydney has been beautiful recently with lots of lovely sunny days, though it’s getting quite chilly at night with winter being just around the corner. Thankfully the Night King has recently been defeated and destroyed, so hopefully it won’t be a long winter. On 17th May 2019 I decided …
May 2019 : Butterflying at Glenbrook and Emu Plains Read More »
Glenbrook, in the lower Blue Mountains, is home to several good butterfly sites, one of them being the bushland at the end of Cox Street. I’ve been to this site on numerous occasions because as well as (sometimes) providing an interesting selection of butterflies it has the added advantages of being a) only a short …
There’s just something irresistible about Ant-blues in general, and the Golden Ant-blue (Acrodipsas aurata) in particular. They are small butterflies and even I could hardly describe them as spectacular, yet every time I see one I find myself snapping away with my camera. I’m by no means the only butterflyer to have fallen under their …
Butterfly collecting is a very divisive subject amongst those of us who have a passion for these fascinating insects. At times, I’ve been saddened by the level of animosity that exists between some of the people who stick to observing and/or photographing butterflies, and those who catch specimens and preserve them in collections. I see …
The Southern Pearl-white (Elodina angulipennis) is the only member of its genus which can be found reliably in Sydney, owing to the fact that it breeds in the Royal Botanic Gardens on Sydney Harbour. Its close relatives E. padusa (Narrow-winged Pearl-white) and E. parthia (Striated Pearl-white) do turn up around Sydney but don’t appear to …
This specimen of Papilio ulysses (Ulysses Swallowtail) resides in the collection of my mate Al Hopkinson, who very kindly provided the photo for this blog post. The butterfly is clearly asymmetrical, because its left side is female and the right side is male. The butterfly is literally split down the middle; the male side has …
