Well it’s been another long gap between updates, mainly because butterflies have been few and far between in the Sydney area. I can’t recall a Spring with so few butterflies as this year; on several excursions I haven’t taken any butterfly photos at all. My guess is that the prolonged downpour during the autumn either killed off a lot of butterflies or led them to leave the area in search of Noah’s Ark.
A trip to my favourite spot for Cyprotides cyprotus, at Lawson in the Blue Mountains, resulted in no sightings of that species and hardly any sign of anything else either. The Lithgow Paralucia spinifera site that I visit almost every Spring had recovered really well from the December 2019 bushfires, with lots of new growth of spinifera‘s foodplant but very few spinifera to be seen on the wing. The ground was still saturated and I speculated that the spinifera colony had taken a hit as a result, given that their larvae and pupae largely reside underground in ants’ nests.
My guess is that this was also the cause of the extremely poor showing of Acrodipsas in what are normally very reliable sites at Bell. Several trips in January, February, October, Noveember and early December resulted in only one sighting, which was a female A. aurata which I photographed at Bell in mid-November. She hung around for a while in the hope of finding a male, but unfortunately I was the only male on the hilltop that was interested in seeing her. I love watching Acros, so the dearth of them in 2022 definitely left me with a case of the Ant-blue Blues.
It was a similar story with the Hesperids. It wasn’t until early December that I started seeing more than the occasional skipper. Although I hardly saw any except the occasional Hesperilla idothea until the end of November, once I did start finding them they were, almost without exception, old and worn specimens.
Seeing as the Sydney area was only offering slim pickings I wasn’t exactly unhappy when work sent me to Perth for the last 2 weeks in October, which gave me the chance to go butterflying on the weekend in the middle. On the Saturday I went to the Koondoola Regional Bushland, which was a spectacularly productive site on my first visit to Perth in 2008, though much less so in 2016 and 2017. In 2022 it seemed to be almost devoid of butterflies, apart from Vanessa kershawi and Lampides boeticus. I walked around for almost 9 hours, during which I managed to find 2 or maybe 3 Hypochrysops halyaetus, which was a very disappointing return for a site where I had seen huge numbers of these gorgeous little butterflies in 2008. Apparently 2021 had been a good year for them, so perhaps I just missed by a year. I only saw one Trapezites sciron and maybe half a dozen very uncooperative Mesodina cyanophracta, plus a few Neolucia agricola occidens.
I had planned to go butterflying again the next day, but persistent rain put paid to that so after getting rather soaked I returned to my hotel and watched the T20 World Cup cricket instead.
I’m hoping to get out with my camera a few times over the Christmas / New Year period, but the weather needs to improve. After signs of things warming up a week or two ago it’s gone back to unseasonably cool weather. Fingers crossed… In the meantime I wish a Merry Christmas to both the readers of this website 🙂
Photo Gallery Updates
- Danaus plexippus (Monarch)
- Euploea corinna (Common Crow)
- Vanessa itea (Yellow Admiral)
- Tisiphone abeona (Sword-grass Brown)
- Argynnina cyrila (Forest Brown)
- Heteronympha merope (Common Brown)
- Hypocysta metirius (Brown Ringlet)
I fear that those fires may have permanently compromised some of your ant-associated lycaenidae. In 2017 in South Africa we had a disastrous fire on the Southern Cape coast (https://www.knysnamuseums.co.za/pages/knysna-fires-2017/) and a Critically Endangered species, Orachrysops niobe, seems to have disappeared from its last known colony as a result. It relied on a really complicated ecosystem. Not only the leguminous host plant (which is known to bounce back from its rootstock after fires), but the ants, which had nests in some old growth Candlewood trees and from which they went to tend to underground aphid colonies on the plants’ roots, where the larvae were sheltering (and eating the nitrogen fixing nodules on the roots). The trees were totally destroyed. The next year saw the emergence of a couple of adults from pupae that were probably buried in the plants’ root systems and thus protected by fire, but there were no ants to fulfil their part of the ecosystem – the butterfly hasn’t been seen since and is probably extinct. So your comments of only seeing one female after a fire, and no males, are worrying. Are there other metapopulations nearby from which they could repopulate?
Hi Steve,
I don’t think the fires in early December 2019 had a bad effect on Acrodipsas at Bell. I saw some Acros there the following month and the 2020/21 season saw them in good numbers. I think the heavy rains since then have been more destructive. Fortunately I did see some male aurata on my latest visit to that site.
The Paralucia spinifera site was hit hard by the fires and the subsequent rains. Fingers crossed the butterfly numbers recover. There are other colonies in the area, though I don’t know how mobile they are.
Hi Martin.
I am enjoying your website. I joined the citizen scientist Australian Butterfly project submitting sightings of butterflies a couple of years ago. I’ve done most of the observations around Berowra and found just two ridgetops that are productive for butterflies. The best one is the fire trail off the end of Mundowie Rd, Mt Kuringai. But National Parks has just put up a sign saying ‘keep out’ because they plan to do a hazard reduction burn. They haven’t done it yet, but I’ll be devastated if and when they do because all those butterflies will go. I’ve observed around 25 different species in a 300m stretch of hilltop this spring.
A colony of Imperial Hairstreak popped up at my other favourite spot in Cowan. It was amazing to see 20 or so butterflies fluttering around the host tree, and to see caterpillars and pupae with their attendant ants. And the butterflies sit down low where you can get a good go at photographing them. There also seems to be a colony of Dusky Knights in the area too.
I was delighted to find your website with other places to find butterflies. I’ve have checked out Brooklyn and found the small green-banded blues. While waiting for one to settle long enough to photograph, a narrow banded Awl alighted on a branch nearby and sat there for a while allowing me to get some good pictures. I intend to checkout Mt Anan Botanical gardens and the other sites in Ingleburn and the City, this summer.
Hi John – do you post any of your butterfly photos online? I really enjoy looking at photos of Australian butterflies, but there aren’t all that many places to see them online…
I hope the hazard reduction burn isn’t too extensive. Most likely the bush will bounce back, with a lot of regeneration of butterfly foodplants, so hopefully the hilltop won’t be quiet for too long.
I haven’t found Mount Annan to be very productive during the summer; I’ve had more luck there in the autumn.
Hope things pick up for you Martin. We had a pretty good year though it will be interesting to see if the summer heatwave and drought (yes in England!) affects those species that rely on grasses for their caterpillars.
Thanks Brian. I follow the forums on the UK Butterflies website; I was particularly interested to read about the influx of Queen of Spain Fritillary. Such a lovely species.