My 4th butterflying trip to Western Australia Most of this post describes my trip to WA in October / November, but before getting to that I’ll briefly cover my butterflying exploits since I returned from my April trip to Cairns and Cooktown. Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney On 1st June I went to the Gardens …
Heteronymphas, Ogyris and Far North Queensland To Blackheath for Heteronymphas In March I twice went to Blackheath in the Blue Mountains, hoping to get better photos of some Heteronymphas. I’ve previously had some luck at the Campbell Rhododendron Gardens and this was where I spent much of my time on these two days. The …
At last, an Update! It’s been a long time since my last update. During the winter I became ill and I ended up being unable to do any butterflying until the start of December, which was very frustrating as a number of my favourite species are on the wing in the Spring but I …
Northern Territory In April 2024 I made my second trip to Darwin, this time with Ross McLaren who hadn’t been butterflying in the Northern Territory before. On the whole it was quite a successful trip, though with a couple of slow days. The big surprise of the trip was encountering Danaid Eggflies (Hypolimnas misippus) …
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 …
Taxonomic changes I thought it was about time I changed the website to reflect a number of taxonomic changes that have been published over the last year or so, so here goes… Molecular phylogeny, systematics and generic classification of the butterfly subfamily Trapezitinae (Lepidoptera: Papilionoidea: Hesperiidae) Anisynta dominula (Two-brand Grass-skipper) is now Atkinsia dominula Neohesperilla …
The late, great Douglas Adams’ book “So Long And Thanks For All The Fish” features a character named Rob McKenna who is a Rain God; rain clouds follow him wherever he goes as they want to be near him, to love him, to cherish him and to water him. I think he and I must …
The butterfly season is winding down in the Sydney area as we head into the second half of Autumn. It hasn’t been a very productive season for me, though I did have some noticeable success with a couple of Skipper species with which I’d had very little luck in the past. On 19th February a …
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 …
With Sydney’s winter becoming cold enough to attract White Walkers instead of American tourists, I did the only thing any sensible person would do – I booked a trip to Cairns for a spot of butterflying. Before going, however, I had the pleasure of seeing quite a large number of Small Green-banded Blues (Psychonotis caelius) in …
