Heteronympha merope

Yesterday afternoon, I decided to pay a visit to the small block of remnant vegetation about 2 minutes walk from my house. I had a plan to undertake some arachnid stalking. Spiders were a bit thin on the ground! Well, there were webs but no residents I could see!

Anyway, there were a few Common Brown butterflies flapping around plus a couple of day-flying moths.

I managed to sneak up on this butterfly after several aborted attempts to get any photos, particularly ones with the wings open! :-)

The butterflies were doing what this species does at this time of the year - flying close to the ground and occasionally landing, opening and closing the wings a couple of times then off again.

I think this one might be a male.

(Click to enlarge)

Capers In Town

Not many, but more than last year!

I saw my first Caper White for the season on the 27th October.

Last Thursday, I saw 3 or 4 busy feeding on a Hebe (Wiri Mist)

These butterflies are migratory, temporary visitors to Victoria and other southern states. They seldom breed outside their normal breeding range unless they find suitable host sources.

Main larval host plant is Capparis sp.

Belenois java
PIERIDAE : Pierinae

(Click images to enlarge)

Junonia villida

(Meadow argus)

This is a common butterfly but I rarely see them here. Perhaps this season will be different. Although this one has seen better days it let me take this photgraph as it was sunning itself.



So far this year, I've seen a handful of Cabbage Whites, one or two Australian Painted Ladies, one Yellow Admiral and several sightings of Red-spotted Jezebel or Wood White. These gliding butterflies are one of my favourites so you can imagine how peeved I was when sitting off a Wood White yesterday as it inspected some mistletoe in my Melaleuca. It was on about the 4th or 5th lap of the tree when I suspect a rotten little Willy Wagtail whacked it! :-( It looked pretty guilty to me - sitting on my house power line licking it's little lips! Besides, I heard that 'snap'!!

And guess what! That Wagtail is expecting more to arrive! It's on constant patrol of the general location! Nothing to do with the fact that it may well have a nest in the vicinity. No, this Wagtail just wants to ruin my day!

Mean little bird! :-)

Vanessa itea

Well, it only took eight months, but yesterday, I finally nailed the Yellow Admiral!

Over the last few days, it's been fascinated with my parsley! Parsley is not a known larval food host (as far as I know) so I was quite interested in this behaviour. However, the parsley is close to one host I have, that being Soleirolia soleirolii (Baby's Tears) so it's quite possible V itea is simply sitting off the host.

I will be on 'Admiral Watch' again from noon till around 2.pm today, which is the time I'm noticing activity from this butterfly. Unfortunately, I am only seeing one at a time - probably the same one!



Tomorrow, I will be concentrating on the Lesser Wanderer (Danaus chrysippus) one of which, has been doing low-flying laps of my house block for several days at around 3pm!

Vanessa kershawi

I suspect this Australian Painted Lady may have taken the journey from pupa to adult today.

After a quick feed on Bouvardia humboldtii, it moved to another part of the plant to sun itself.

In the shot above, the wings are not fully opened.

The rump view!

Papilio anactus 1st instar

Most eggs seemed to hatch exactly four days after I saw them laid. The caterpillars are minute - about 0.3mm. This image is a bit fuzzy. It was windy and I don't have an appropriate camera for this type of photography.

Apparently, some swallowtails mimic toxic or nasty tasting butterflies to avoid predation. The Dainty Swallowtail is one of these but due to to it's increased flight range to incorporate citrus orchards in the southern states, it's somehow lost it's ability to mimic.

I think many caterpillars have disappeared but a few remain and I will be checking their progress regularly.

Heteronympha merope

Common Brown or Western Brown:

Apparently not quite as common as they once were.

This female was playing hard to get, refusing to let me move close enough to take a photo of her fully open wings. She came into the garden to drink dew from the kikuyu (my enemy!)

H. merope uses Poa, Themeda triandra (Kangaroo grass) and Bursaria as well as couch and kikuyu as host food plants. All are represented in my garden.

Later instars are able to graze on kikuyu but apparently, it's toxic to 1st instars.

In Autumn, females deposit eggs on the leaf or at the base of the host provided it's lush. Otherwise, they lay on ground litter or on plants near the host. The caterpillars move to the host once new growth appears.

I had not seen this butterfly in my garden until Saturday morning.

Last June, I planted a number of species of native grasses, including Poa and Themeda triandra. I also planted several Bursaria spinosa as I wanted to attract a greater diversity of butterfly species to my garden. In this case, it's worked!

Papilio anactus Eggs

With 39 degree heat yesterday, 40deg expected today and high 30's until the middle of next week, I won't be holding my breath for a hatch. I found at least 20 eggs on three citrus. These were on a cumquat. The eggs are about the size of a pin-head.

I found a couple of small spiders sitting close to some eggs as dusk set in last night!

Depending on when fertilisation took place, if the eggs are to hatch, it should be within three to four days, apparently. The eggs will turn orange prior to hatching and some will be infertile.

The citrus received a good watering on Wednesday night prior to eggs being laid. All I can do, I suppose, is to keep the soil damp to maintain a bit of humidity.

The Lemon...

...could be in for it! :)

Right on cue, the Dainty Swallowtail returned to my citrus trees this morning.

We are experiencing a heat wave, with hot northerly winds, so I hope any eggs laid are not affected.

I found taking photos of this female depositing eggs quite challenging as they flutter furiously while they lay.



I wasn't going to put the photo below up, but what the heck! Neither are particularly good but I will offer this excuse! Because I'm likely to only get one opportunity as so many of our butts are thin
on the ground around here, I will be grabbing any shots I can with both hands.



I have just braved the ferociously hot northerly wind to take some photos of the cream coloured eggs. If they are any good, I'll add them later.

DAINTY SWALLOWTAIL

Papilio anactus

(Also known as the Dingy Swallowtail or Small Citrus Butterfly.)

I first noticed this butterfly hovering, then landing on my tallest lemon tree.

It spent some time feeding on Salvia microphylla (Huntington Red)

Last night, I saw a Lesser Wanderer (Danaus chrysippus) at about 6pm but wasn't able to get a photo. Hopefully, it will return sometime today.

Spotted Jezebel

Spotted Jezebel (Wood White or Red-spotted Jezebel)