Website update : 26th June 2022

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 Sydney’s Royal Botanic Gardens. I hadn’t seen this lovely species in the Gardens for around 12 to 15 years, so it was great to see them back – most of them were on the large side too.

Unfortunately even Far North Queensland was also affected by the cold spell gripping the east coast. Although the temperatures were much higher than in Sydney it was still too cool for a lot of the wimpy tropical butterflies. Many of the species I had targeted were conspicuous by their absence, though I did manage to get one or two species I was very keen to get, as well as more / better shots of several other species.

One highlight was finally getting shots of the White-margined Crow, the Queensland subspecies of Euploea darchia, which I found in a spot I had searched on at least a dozen occasions on previous trips to Cairns. Another was getting to see Deudorix democles (White-spotted Flash) in the wild, as I had only see one before and that emerged from a pupa that had been sent to me.  On the second day of this trip Ross Mclaren and I went up to Chillagoe and were fortunate enough to see a number of these lovely butterflies settling low down on a Cocky Apple bush. They mostly sat with their wings closed, but on occasion one would deign to reveal the brilliant blue on the upperside of its wings, as shown in the image at the top of this post. I also found this to be a particularly well-behaved species, as once settled they would happily sit and pose for photos. I wish more butterflies would be like that.

My thanks go to Ross for his help and company whilst I was in Cairns, and also to our fellow butterflyers Ed and Nils.