New species
I had been looking for the Yellow Jewel (Hypochrysops byzos) ever since I began taking butterfly photography seriously in 2004, and I’d begun to doubt its existence as I’d never seen any sign of it whatsoever. Then, at the end of January 2024, Nils of Australian Butterfly Conservation suggested that we go looking for it in the ACT. We’d both been blown away by this sighting of two freshly emerged female byzos, and we hoped we might also have some luck.
And so on Saturday 3rd February Nils and I spent much of the day searching for byzos in temperatures approaching 35C. We were on the point of calling it a day when a non-descript little insect fluttered by and settled on the underside of a leaf, only just above the ground. It turned out to be the elusive byzos. Admittedly she was just about the most beaten up butterfly I’ve ever seen, but she was definitely a female byzos. Nils and I followed her for some time while she fed from Bursaria flowers and then just sat on the ground.
Naturally I’d have preferred to see a pristine specimen, but it was still a thrill to find byzos at all.
(Hypochrysops byzos)
(Hypochrysops byzos)
Thredbo
The following day we went to Thredbo; my main target here was Heteronympha solandri (Solander’s Brown) as I’d only managed two very poor photos of this species on my one previous butterflying trip to this area. As before, solandri proved to be a very difficult butterfly to photograph, as they are very easily disturbed even at a distance of several metres. Fortunately they became more settled towards late afternoon, so I was able to get a few decent photos, thanks largely to Nils who spotted the male shown in the photo at the top of this Blog post.
My secondary target for the day was Oreixenica correae (Orange Alpine Xenica), as I hadn’t been able to get enough shots of them on my previous visit in January 2013. I saw a lot more of these Xenicas on this visit; they’re lovely little butterflies though the males do seem to have a nasty habit of chasing off solandri that settle to bask in the late afternoon sunshine, which caused me some angst and saw a number of profanities being aimed at the culprits.
(Oreixenica correae)
(Oreixenica correae)
Skippers at Blackheath
Apart from the trip to Thredbo and the ACT I hadn’t had a particularly productive season to date. I made repeated trips to Bell hoping to get more/better shots of Acrodipsas myrmecophila (Small Ant-blue), without any sightings at all.
However I did have more luck with some female skippers; at Blackheath on 6th January I saw two female Hesperilla trimaculata (Large Brown Skipper), the second being a quite fresh and very colourful specimen. On the last weekend of January, along the Braeside Walk at Blackheath, I came across a newly emerged female Hesperilla idothea (Flame Sedge-skipper). She was so fresh that her wings were still soft; she couldn’t yet fly very well and so was content to sit still while I took photos. Whilst I have photographed a lot of hilltopping males of both these species, I have seen very few females, so I was very fortunate to get good photos of them in the same month.
(Hesperilla trimaculata)
(Hesperilla idothea)
Taxonomic changes
My species count has increased by two in this update, and now stands at 317. The first (Hypochrysops byzos) required more effort than the second, which came from the reclassification of Papilio fuscus (Fuscous Swallowtail) in A comprehensive phylogeny and revised taxonomy illuminate the origin and diversification of the global radiation of Papilio (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae).
Whereas previously I had two of the three Australian subspecies of P. fuscus, the new classification sees them as separate species, namely Papilio canopus (Canopus Swallowtail) and Papilio capaneus (Capaneus Swallowtail).
(Papilio canopus)
(Papilio capaneus)
Photo Gallery Updates
I have added photos to the following species pages:
- Junonia villida (Meadow Argus)
- Oreixenica kershawi (Striped Xenica)
- Oreixenica correae (Orange Alpine Xenica)
- Oreixenica lathoniella (Silver Xenica)
- Oreixenica orichora (Spotted Alpine Xenica)
- Geitoneura klugii (Marbled Xenica)
- Heteronympha merope (Common Brown)
- Heteronympha penelope (Shouldered Brown)
- Heteronympha solandri (Solander’s Brown)
- Heteronympha cordace (Bright-eyed Brown)
Contacts page
Whilst working on the November 2023 update I tested out my Contacts page and found that my email form is no longer working. I don’t know why it broke or when it happened, so if you’ve tried contacting me that way and received no reply, please accept my apologies.
I had a go at fixing it but didn’t get it working. In the meantime I’ve replaced the form with links to my Facebook and Instagram, as it should be possible to contact me that way instead.
Hi Martin
Congratulations on finally finding bysos, i have also been looking for it for years without seeing any signs of this elusive creature, when living down south that is. If i was a little closer to the snowies i would be looking for it there.
Thanks Al. I’d begun to suspect that byzos didn’t really exist…
Hi Martin, great post as usual. One thing you might not know is that on a smartphone some of the images are placed over the text and it doesn’t wrap properly.
Thanks for the heads up Steve. I’ve fixed that now, and gone back through older posts to fix them too.