I hadn’t been to Cairns for two years but I found myself with some time on my hands, so when Nils Beaven from Australian Butterflies Conservation invited me to join him for a few days of butterflying in that area I booked some flights and headed up to Far North Queensland. The weather had been mostly sunny for the previous two weeks, and as there’d been plenty of rain before that we were hopeful of seeing a lot of butterflies. It was still sunny when I arrived in the late afternoon on Thursday 20th February. The weather forecast wasn’t too encouraging, but we had our fingers crossed that things would turn out better than the predictions.
Friday 21st
There was definitely rain on the way, but this looked like being the best day for a while on the coast, so we decided to try the Cairns area today and perhaps venture inland – where there’s generally less rainfall – on subsequent days.
Our first stop was Smithfield Regional Park, which we entered via the gate on Moore Road. It was still early and quite overcast, but within a couple of metres we saw a stonking fresh Bordered Rustic (Cupha prosope). This is a common species around Cairns but I’ve generally found them to be rather hard to approach, especially when they settle with their wings open. This specimen, however, still hadn’t had its early-morning coffee and so was relaxed enough to just sit on the path with his wings spread and allow us to take photos. It’s often a good idea to start butterflying early in the morning in the Tropics; whilst few butterflies are on the wing until later there’s always the chance of getting shots of half-asleep individuals like this.
We walked a short distance up the path to the point where a track branched off to the right. I’ve previously found this to be a pretty good spot, especially for skippers, and we did find some of the Usual Suspects here. Nils spent some time pursuing a beautiful – but reluctant – Pied Flat (Tagiades japetus), while I took shots of a very fresh-looking Yellow-streaked Swift (Sabera dobboe).
(Cupha prosope)
(Sabera dobboe)
In previous years I’d seen some very interesting species in this Regional Park, especially in September 2012 when a small clearing along a rainforest track had yielded Coral Jewels (Hypochrysops miskini), Dark Forest-blues (Pseudodipsas eone) and even a Bright Forest-blue (Pseudodipsas cephenes). A year or two after that time a bulldozer was driven through that track to open it up for mountain-biking, and the clearing was completely trashed. I was hoping the undergrowth had grown back in the interim, but when I finally found the spot it was still just a wide place in the mountain bike trail and totally devoid of any butterflies.
The weather closed in; the clouds darkened and we found ourselves high up the hillside in an increasingly heavy drizzle. We therefore headed back down, finding conditions a little better down at the bottom. Just about the only interesting butterflies we saw in the rainforest were a Hamadryad (Tellervo zoilus) and a badly damaged Large Green-banded Blue (Danis danis).
A quick stop at a small patch of bushland next to the junction of Trinity Beach Road and Captain Cook Highway proved to be well worthwhile. In umpteen visits to Cairns I’d only once been able to photograph a Fuscous Swallowtail (Papilio fuscus capaneus), and that was an unfortunate specimen who had lost most of its left hind wing and was having difficulty flying. I’ve seen plenty of these butterflies over the years, but they never wanted to pose for my camera. Oddly enough on my one visit to Darwin I’d been able to get photos of the Northern Territory subspecies (Papilio fuscus canopus) within two hours of my plane touching down. But today, just as another shower began, a capaneus settled on a plant right in front of me, less than a meter off the ground, and stayed there while I got close enough to get decent shots. Finally!
(Papilio fuscus capaneus)
(Papilio fuscus canopus)
The final stop for the day was Yule Point, about 40kms north of Trinity Beach. I had read somewhere that it was a good spot for Narcissus Jewels (Hypochrysops narcissus), though on my only previous visit in August 2007 I saw nothing at all. We didn’t see any narcissus this time either, though Nils did spot a female Copper Jewel (Hypochrysops apelles), who repeatedly settled on one particular mangrove plant, where she walked around and laid the occasional egg.
Other than a quick glimpse of a male apelles there was little to see so after a while I left the mangroves, crossed the Highway, and went to investigate a track that ran between a cane field and a forest. I didn’t spend long there owing to the superabundance of very hungry mosquitoes, but I didn’t see much in the way of butterflies. The only interesting species I saw was a Purple Moonbeam (Philiris innotata), which was flying around the top of a Sandpaper Fig and showed no inclination to come down within camera range. Incidentally I think the name “Sandpaper Fig” is a misnomer because I found its leaves were incapable of altering the condition of a cricket ball 😉
(Hypochrysops apelles)
(Hypochrysops apelles)
Saturday 22nd
The tropical low in the Gulf of Carpentaria was now completing its metamorphosis into Tropical Cyclone Esther. The name “Esther” sounds harmless enough, but she was carrying a huge amount of rain and had every intention of dumping it all on us as we attempted to find some butterflies. Nils and I gave up on the coast and drove inland. We stopped off at Kuranda to pick up Al Hopkinson from his slice of paradise, which includes his own personal acre of rainforest. Heading past a bunch of locals who were attempting to build an ark using schematics they found on Wikipedia, we drove out towards Herberton in the tablelands.
On the way there we stopped by a tree at the roadside to check what was underneath a band. The tree was home to a large, low-growing mistletoe which was the foodplant host for the Northern Purple Azure (Ogyris zosine). Underneath the band we saw a good number of zosine larvae and pupae, attended by an army of Camponotus ants who objected to our presence in a hostile (and very bitey) manner. I had seen the zosine pupae before but never the larvae, so I took a few photos before it was time to replace the band and continue on our way.
(Ogyris zosine)
(Ogyris zosine)
Our next port of call was a small hill across the road from Specimen Hill just outside Herberton, a well-known butterfly hilltop. We decided against going up Specimen Hill itself as the weather wasn’t looking too good and there was a strong possibility of getting caught in a downpour. At the bottom of the smaller hill, right next to where we parked the car, were a few small wattles that were host to a little colony of Macqueen’s Hairstreak (Jalmenus pseudictinus). I didn’t really need any shots of this species as I had plenty of good photos from a previous visit in January 2009; this was just as well as my new Canon 90D camera had decided not to work today. It refused to power up, despite the battery being fully charged. Later that night, with the help of YouTube, I found that it’s a common Canon DSLR problem – the microswitch on the battery compartment door wasn’t recognising that the door was closed. I managed to work around this by the hi-tech solution of folding up a tiny piece of a paper towel and shoving it in so it pushed the microswitch down, but for the time being I had to use my backup (a bridge camera) and hope for the best. The shots weren’t as good as I’d have liked, but better than nothing.
(Jalmenus pseudictinus)
(Jalmenus pseudictinus)
We then made our way up to the top of the hill. A couple of Ogyris teased us by flying around the treetops, way too high to get photos. They were most likely Orange-tipped Azures (Ogyris iphis), a species I haven’t been able to photograph and one that is close to the top of my Cairns Lust List.
I had more luck at ground level, where a male Bronze Ochre (Trapezites macqueeni) was maintaining a territory. I’d photographed a beautiful fresh female at the same spot in April 2011 but had never seen a male, much to the surprise of my butterflyer mates as the females are rarely seen. I had some difficulty focussing on this little skipper with my bridge camera, but I was able to get some shots of his upperside. A couple of days later Nils and I returned to this spot and found a different – much fresher – male, who allowed me to get a good underside shot with my patched-up DSLR.
(Trapezites macqueeni)
(Trapezites macqueeni)
(Trapezites macqueeni)
(Trapezites macqueeni)
Before long the rain caught up with us again, which became an all too common occurrence over the next few days. We started back towards Cairns, thinking that the persistent light rain meant an early end to the butterflying day. When we were getting close to the Koah area Al suggested we might as well pull into a side road where he’d previously found Spotted Grass-skippers (Toxidia senta) nectaring on flowers. I was very keen to have a look for it, despite the rain, as this would be a new species for me. For once the weather decided to cooperate; the rain stopped shortly after our arrival and the sky brightened a bit though we didn’t actually get any sunshine. Nils, Al and I walked along the roadside verge looking at the flowers, which quickly attracted some grass darts and a few common Lycaenids.
I decided to cross to the other side of the road as there were a few flowers there too. Almost immediately I sighted a skipper which I was certain had to be senta; the spots on its underside were so distinctive that I had no doubt what it was even though I’d never seen the species before. Nils and I both took photos, and then Nils very kindly loaned me his DSLR so I could get better shots than were likely with my bridge camera. I didn’t know what I was doing with his Nikon as I’m a Canon user, but fortunately some of the shots came out well enough to use on my website. We didn’t find any more specimens, but even one senta made for a great ending to the day : species number 310 for my website!
(Toxidia senta)
(Toxidia senta)
Sunday 23rd
By today our good friend Tropical Cyclone Esther was trying to drown Cairns completely, so we decided to try our luck inland again. We were very fortunate that Ross McLaren was free to go butterflying this day, as he took us both out to Forty Mile Scrub to look for one or two of my target species. It took almost 4 hours to get there, including a quick stop to check the same band for Ogyris zosine that we’d checked the previous day with Al. It appears to be something of a communal band 🙂 . We exchanged butterflying stories on the journey, much of which I spent salivating at the thought of all the species Ross has found that I haven’t yet seen.
I’d been told that Forty Mile Scrub had burned badly, and a large amount of this rare Vine Thicket habitat had indeed been incinerated, apparently on purpose. There was still a patch of vegetation around the toilet block – thank goodness the toilet block had been saved! – so Ross pulled over for us to have a look around. There were quite a lot of butterflies around; most of them were common species but there were also one or two Two-brand Crows (Euploea sylvester sylvester) which I was very keen to photograph as I only had shots of the Darwin subspecies (E. sylvester pelor). Initially I had trouble distinguishing them from the far more numerous Common Crows (Euploea corinna), but fortunately Ross was much more familiar with them and before long spotted a beautiful male. He looked to be a perfect specimen and after a few abortive attempts I was able to get some shots of him showing off the brands that give the species its name. As I was now able to work out which Crows were sylvester I went on to photograph the undersides of a couple of females, though neither was a particularly great specimen.
(Euploea sylvester)
(Euploea sylvester)
This location was also home to a number of Four-barred Swordtails (Protographium leosthenes), most of which were badly damaged and missing one or both their tails. I did take one shot of a leosthenes with both tails, but it still was a rather old, worn butterfly. I would have stayed longer to see if I could get more photos of these butterflies, but the main target for the day was still a bit further on.
Ross drove us out to a roadside verge where a number of Acacia bidwillii bushes were growing. He’d previously found Emerald Hairstreaks (Jalmenus daemeli) here, though none were to be found today. We relocated to another spot further along the road and began checking a whole load more Acacias. Ross began by finding some daemeli eggs and then a couple of larvae, which were much more inconspicuous than other Jalmenus larvae I’d seen. I’m using to seeing masses of ants clustered all over the larvae, but the Acacia bidwillii foliage provided good cover. I photographed an egg and a larva, and then I spotted an adult in flight around a nearby shrub. We had found a little colony, with many of the Acacias in the area being home to one or two of the butterflies. Most of them were absolutely beautiful freshly-emerged insects, though I was a little disappointed that none of them ever opened its wings to show the lovely upperside colour. We only got to see this when the butterflies were in flight, and they all closed their wings the moment they settled.
Nils and I filled out boots taking photos, and Ross managed to locate a couple of pupae as well, meaning we were able to get shots of all four lifecycle stages on the same day – this is not unusual in Jalmenus species. Species number 311 for me!
(Jalmenus daemeli)
(Jalmenus daemeli)
(Jalmenus daemeli)
(Jalmenus daemeli)
Satisfied with our daemeli experience we returned to Cairns. As we got closer the weather became increasingly bad; it was particularly disgusting on the steep, winding and slippery road down from Kuranda to the coast, and the torrential rain continued well into the night. Nils and I were hoping the sky would run out of rain so we could have a sunny day tomorrow…
Monday 24th
The forecast was terrible again, though it looked as if might be better inland so we decided to head out that way again and chase whatever sunshine we might be able to find. To begin with it wasn’t too bad – for once it wasn’t actually raining at Kuranda so we pulled into the hilltop there to see what we might be able to photograph. The clouds caught up with us before we were able to get any shots so we continued pushing inland, stopping off at the site where we’d seen Toxidia senta a couple of days before. Amazingly enough it was quite a bright morning and there was even a bit of sunshine, so we thought we had a good chance of finding some more of those lovely skippers. Wrong again! We actually saw far fewer butterflies than we’d seen 2 days before under worse conditions, which we didn’t understand at all.
After an unproductive search we went onto the Rifle Range Road site at Atherton, which I’ve found to be a productive site in the past. To nobody’s great surprise it began raining almost immediately, so we got back into the car and waited it out for about half an hour before trying again. There wasn’t a lot on the wing, though I was able to photograph another Two-brand Crow. Nils had more luck, getting a shot of a female White-brand Grass-skipper (Toxidia rietmanni parasema). After he showed me his photo I searched around for the butterfly as I have very few shots of this species and none of them are much good. I also only have the southern version, so parasema would have been a new subspecies for me. Alas, I couldn’t find her.
Nils also had some joy with the Blue Argus (Junonia orithya) butterflies that frequently settled on the path as it began climbing up the hillside. This is a species I’ve always struggled with, as they rarely allow me to get anywhere near them. Since Nils had taken some great shots of really gorgeous specimens I spent some time trying to emulate him but orithya simply doesn’t like me, or perhaps Nils is just much better at stalking them. Either way, I didn’t get any worthwhile photos of them once again.
With the rain starting again we went onto Herberton to see what we might be able to find. As usual the conditions worsened just after we arrived, though it didn’t actually start raining. Since my DSLR was now working I had hoped to get some more upperside shots of the Jalmenus pseudictinus, but today I couldn’t find any around the wattles where they’d been two days before. I did see a couple flying around the top of a small tree, but there was no opportunity for me to get any photos. My only success at this site was getting the underside shot of a male Trapezites macqueeni that I mentioned above.
Tuesday 25th
This was my last day, and with my flight leaving at 4pm I had to stay close to Cairns and finish butterflying by 2pm. Knowing that I was about to go home the Cairns weather provided a fine and increasingly sunny day, just to let me know what I was going to be missing out on when I left.
Nils and I first went to Lake Placid in the hope of finding the Sword-tailed Flash (Bindahara phocides), which I’d seen there once in December 2008. It was still quite early and the sun hadn’t really broken through the cloud yet, so we soon decided to move on.
Next stop was Goomboorah Park, which I had visited once before in February 2018. On that occasion I had found it to be a good spot for Red-bodied Swallowtails (Pachliopta polydorus) and White Oak-blues (Arhopala wildei), both of which Nils and I were keen to photograph. The weather improved to the point where it became mostly sunny, however we really didn’t see all that many butterflies. There were plenty of Orange Bush-browns and Common Eggflies, but nothing that we were really looking for. I briefly had hopes that I’d found the elusive Swamp Darter (Arrhenes marnas), which would have been a new species for me, but it was the much more common Scrub Darter (Arrhenes dschilus) – a lovely species of Hesperid but one I’ve photographed plenty of times before.
After a couple of hours I went into a little clearing in the forest and found a number of Narrow-winged Awls (Badamia exclamationis) had taken up residence. They were hard to photograph as they settled on the underside of leaves of low shrubs, making it very difficult to get a view of a butterfly without disturbing it. Eventually one landed in a spot where I could see it without moving the plant, so I was able to get a shot. We also had a great sighting of a Ulysses Swallowtail (Papilio ulysses) here, it flew around us for some time at head height. Nils placed a blue Mentos wrapper on a leaf; this attracted the butterfly and he was able to get a photo of the ulysses perched on the wrapper.
With time running out we went back to Lake Placed for an hour; there were more butterflies around than we’d seen early that day but still not all that many. The most interesting to me was a female Pale Ciliate-blue (Anthene lycaenoides), a species I haven’t seen often in Cairns (though there were loads of them on the wing the one time I went to Townsville).
And so my latest trip to Cairns came to an end. Despite the weather and the general lack of butterflies I still count it as a success. I got two new species – my first since I was in Darwin in April 2018 – as well as one new subspecies, and I was able to fill a few other gaps in my photo gallery. I would not have had this success without Nils, Al and Ross – thanks so much guys!
(Anthene lycaenoides)
Photo Gallery Updates
New species :
New subspecies :
I have also added photos to the following species pages :
- Protographium leosthenes (Four-barred Swordtail)
- Graphium eurypylus (Pale Triangle)
- Papilio fuscus (Fuscous Swallowtail)
- Cressida cressida (Clearwing Swallowtail)
- Belenois java (Caper White)
- Cupha prosope (Bordered Rustic)
- Pantoporia consimilis (Orange Plane)
- Hypochrysops apelles (Copper Jewel)
- Ogyris zosine (Northern Purple Azure)
- Jalmenus pseudictinus (Macqueen’s Hairstreak)
- Anthene lycaenoides (Pale Ciliate-blue)
- Zizula hylax (Dainty Grass-blue)
- Badamia exclamationis (Narrow-winged Awl)
- Trapezites macqueeni (Bronze Ochre)
- Toxidia thyrrhus (Dusky Grass-skipper)
- Pelopidas agna (Dingy Swift)
- Telicota colon (Pale-orange Darter)
- Cephrenes augiades (Orange Palm-dart)
- Sabera caesina (White-clubbed Swift)
- Sabera dobboe (Yellow-streaked Swift)
Hi Martin – glad you had a good and rewarding trip – 311 species is very impressive !! Enjoyed your report and photos are excellent as usual .
Thanks Colin! I think it may now be 312, as my mate Al reckons the little grass darts we saw at the Neohesperilla senta site were Taractrocera anisomorpha 🙂
Hi Martin
Beautiful shots, great visual and written story-telling.
Wondering if 1, you would mind sharing any images or 2 if you have any information on Lepidopbera that might be reliant on Salt Marshes or Grey Mangroves.
Here in S.Aus. we’re in a battle to save our Port River mangroves along the old salt mine sites at St Kilda.
Thanks
(facebook manager for Butterfly Conservation SA, (where I will definitely be sharing some items from your website 🙂 )