Theclinesthes miskini (Wattle Blue)

Theclinesthes miskini miskini
Theclinesthes miskini eucalypti

Other Common Names

Miskin’s Blue

Notes

According to all the books, this is a common and widespread species and is encountered on hilltops all over the place. I had checked out any number of hilltops and never seen the things at all. But when I went to Cairns I found a large number of them on hilltops in the Mount Whitfield Conservation Park. Photographing them wasn’t easy, because they were continually chasing each other. So many times I saw one settled but before I could get it in shot it would be off to chase away another butterfly which had come within sight.

I finally found it in NSW in January 2008; a single male who had chosen a small bush on the top of Hat Hill near Blackheath, and who was defending it against all comers.

Sightings

Cairns – October 2005, April 2006
Mount Sugarloaf, NSW – November 2010, December 2010

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