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 be related because the same thing happens to me when I go out with my camera to look for butterflies. This targeted precipitation is especially obvious when I go to Cairns as when I arrive, greeted by overcast skies and tropical rainfall, I am invariably told “It’s been beautiful for the past fortnight”.
It has reached the point where after each trip I decide that I’m not going back to Cairns as I so rarely find my target species and I don’t really enjoy tropical storms. But after a few months, especially when it starts getting cold in Sydney, I start leafing through my butterfly books and seeing photos of lots of species I have yet to photograph, and before I know it I’m winging my way back up to North Queensland…
Saturday 22nd April
I caught the day’s first flight out of Sydney – departing at Stupid o’clock – with my luggage full of camera gear and my head full of daydreams about all the butterflies I was going to find. Because this time would be different, right? When the plane landed the sky was mostly sunny. There were a few clouds around, but it looked like there was a decent chance of seeing lots of butterflies. By the time I’d collected my suitcase and left the terminal it had become almost completely overcast, and it was very windy as well.
It was too early to check into my motel so I dumped my bags in the reception area and walked out to the Cairns Central Swamp, which has been a productive site for me in the past. When I was about halfway there I got caught by a short-lived but rather heavy shower ,which was the first time I got rained upon on this trip. It would not be the last.
When I reached the Swamp the weather worsened. The rain was lighter and intermittent, but the light conditions were terrible. There were some patches of blue sky but it was mainly overcast, which included some very black clouds. As it was very windy the overhead conditions – and therefore the light – were changing wildly by the second, making photography so challenging that it was perhaps a good thing that there were no butterflies to photograph. To be more accurate there were no butterflies other than Large Grass-yellows (Eurema hecabe); there were a lot of these around as Cairns had recently seen a large influx, but as usual they preferred flitting around to posing for my camera.
It started raining more heavily again, so I stepped beneath a tree which kept most of the rain off me and, more importantly, my camera. Whilst waiting for the shower to pass I had a look at the undergrowth and saw a particularly large Darter that was also waiting for conditions to improve. This piqued my interest because I was pretty sure it was a Northern Large Darter (Telicota ohara). In the past I’ve seen a few species of Darters in the Swamp but I hadn’t seen ohara anywhere, and by all accounts it’s a hard thing to find. The light was extremely poor, and I didn’t want to use the flash for fear of disturbing the butterfly, so I bumped up the ISO and opened the aperture and fired off a bunch of shots, none of which turned out to be much good because they were so dark.
I decided to take a punt so I turned the flash on and reverted to a more normal ISO. Unfortunately the Darter, who had been sitting very obligingly with wings open, was started by the flash and jumped with each shot. As a result I didn’t get decent photos of her upperside, though at least it did mean I could see part of her underside on one or two shots. She soon decided she’d had enough and disappeared rapidly into the trees, and though I returned to the spot several times over the next few days I didn’t see her again. Whilst I would have liked to get better photos I was pleasantly surprised that the first butterfly I photographed on this trip was a new species for me.
I wandered around the Swamp’s pathways for a while without seeing much of interest, before coming upon a beautiful fresh female Black-spotted Flash, also known as the Common Tit (Hypolycaena phorbas). This is a species I always see on visits to Cairns, sometimes in good numbers, but this was a particularly lovely specimen. She was fluttering around a variety of low-growing plants and appeared to be laying eggs on all of them indiscriminately – very inclusive of her! Perhaps tired by these exertions she paused for a while and sat with her wings wide open, allowing me ample time to get some nice shots. After a few minutes she took to the air and was immediately chased by a large dragonfly. I lost sight of them but hoped she’d survived; fortunately when I returned to the spot later on I found she was back there, still laying eggs and looking none the worse for her close encounter.
(Telicota ohara)
(Hypolycaena phorbas)
The other notable find in the Swamp was a female Orange-tipped Pea-blue (Everes lacturnus), an attractive species and supposedly a common one, though I myself haven’t seen many. At this moment the sun came out so I had to adjust my ISO to reduce the chances of over-exposing the shot. I made a bit of a meal of this and was worried that she would finish feeding from her flower and disappear before I was ready, but she stayed very still the whole time. When I got a good sight of her in my viewfinder I saw why; she was in the clutches of a crab spider and I hadn’t been the only one making a meal of things at that moment.
After taking a few photos of the unfortunate lacturnus I made may way over to the Botanic Gardens. At the edge of a small lawn area alongside Collins Avenue I spotted a freshly-emerged male Red Lacewing (Cethosia cydippe) basking in what little sunshine there was. Initially I had difficulty getting within reach of him, but as the sun disappeared again he became more docile and I was able to get upperside and underside shots of this stunning butterfly.
This guy might have been large and colourful but he was repeatedly chased away by a much smaller Blue-banded Eggfly (Hypolimnas alimena), who was well below average size for his species but seemed to have a Napoleon Complex as compensation.
The Botanic Gardens turned out to be a disappointment; the rain started again and the only butterfly I photographed there was a rather nice female Shining Oak-blue (Arhopala micale), though as ever I couldn’t help but wonder why butterflies with such brilliant blue uppersides almost invariably sit with their wings closed. I did catch glimpses of the blue as she took the occasional short flight before landing again on the same bush, and the blue was so eye-catching she was like a miniature Morpho.
But that was it for the day. Although it was only mid-afternoon nothing else was on the wing, so I returned to my motel and checked in.
Sunday 23rd
It was wet again in Cairns, but I wasn’t there to get rained upon 🙂
My fellow butterflyer Ross drove us out to Chillagoe, which was far enough inland to avoid the lousy weather. My target was the Northern Ant-blue (Acrodipsas decima), which I had not seen on last year’s trip to the same site, but our first stop was at a rocky hillock to see if we could find the White-spotted Flash (Deudorix democles). I was hoping to get shots of an adult female, as though I’d photographed hilltopping males last year the only female I had ever seen was one that emerged from a pupa I’d been sent. Ross was looking for larvae/pupae inside the fruits of the Strychnos trees growing around the lower slopes of the hill.
I did catch a few glimpses of female democles, though there was no chance of any photos, and Ross had no better luck as the Strychnos trees had all just about finished fruiting. This was a surprise because last year we visited in mid-June and the trees had just finished fruiting then; this year we were 7 weeks earlier but the Strychnos seemed to be at the exact same state. I did have a consolation prize as I got some nice photos of Two-brand Crows (Euploea sylvester), and I saw a female Plumbago Blue (Leptotes plinius). The latter is very common in suburban Sydney in the autumn, breeding on the introduced Plumbago auriculata, but this was the first time I’d seen one on its Australian native foodplant P. zeylanica.
From there we went up to the hilltop, where Acrodipsas decima was once again conspicuous by its absence. There were more butterflies around than there had been in June 2022; largely the same species as before but this time we also saw several Chequered Swallowtails (Papilio demoleus) and Orange Migrants (Catopsilia scylla). A few Northern Purple Azures (Ogyris zosine) battled for possession of their preferred perches, always rather high up unfortunately, and some very small Wattle Blues (Theclinesthes miskini) did their best to fool us into thinking they were A. decima. On two occasions a Satin Azure (Ogyris amaryllis) flashed across the hilltop and settled low down on a shrub, but they only stayed for a few seconds and I never got close enough for a photo.
The biggest surprise of the day was when a male Cruiser (Vindula arsinoe) turned up on the hilltop. It was odd that a denizen of the rainforest would show up in such dry country, apparently a long way from any suitable habitat. Perhaps he too was just trying to avoid all the rain currently falling closer to the coast.
During the afternoon the male D. democles began arriving on the hilltop, just like last year. I took plenty of photos but it was a lot windier than last year so most of the photos weren’t good, though I did get more shots of the blue and black upperside this time.
After a somewhat disappointing day, despite the sunshine, we headed back to Cairns. The weather Bureau had forecast between 5 and 10mm of rain but there had been about 100mm during the day, so we’d definitely made a good call by going inland instead.
(Euploea sylvester)
(Deudorix democles)
Monday 24th
The weather forecast was so bad that Ross wisely decided to work rather than go looking for butterflies. I settled down in my room, intending to keep an eye out for any improvement that would give me the chance to get out and maybe have another look for Telicota ohara, when I got a message from Nils of Australian Butterfly Conservation suggesting we try our luck on the Atherton tablelands. Nils had seen a weather forecast for Atherton indicating that the rain would slacken off around 11am, with a mix of cloud and sun for the rest of the day.
Needless to say, the forecast had been extremely over-optimistic. The day turned out to be almost identical to one we spent together in February 2020, as we spent ages driving around looking for somewhere where the clouds were thinner and the rain less heavy. We occasionally hit a patch of sunshine, upon which we stopped at the nearest place where we might have a chance of seeing some butterflies – generally just at the side of the road. Every time we got out of the car we had no more than ten minutes before the rain caught up with us, so we didn’t get many photo opportunities.
At one of these stops, somewhere around Tolga, we came upon a Chequered Swallowtail (Papilio demoleus) hunkered down amongst the long grass. This was one of those occasions where poor weather worked in our favour I’ve rarely seen these Swallowtails doing anything other than fly powerfully past. No doubt this one would have preferred to be doing just that, but with rain about to hit it had just landed to wait it out.
It was well over two hours before we got another break in the weather. By this time we were at Innot Hot Springs, where Nils had seen plenty of butterflies on a grassy patch a few months previously. Although this was just a small area at the roadside it turned out to be home to a variety of grasses, flowers and other low-growing vegetation. There were also plenty of butterflies to be seen including a number of miniscule Jewelled Grass-blues (Freyeria putli), Australia’s smallest butterfly species and one I haven’t come across very often. The impending arrival of the inevitable rain had quietened them down considerably, allowing me to get some nice shots before Nils and I retreated to his car as the rain became too heavy.
We now began heading back towards Cairns, but hadn’t got very far before Nils decided to see if it was worth going down one of the unsealed roads that joined the highway. After a couple of kms the road crossed a little creek, and here the sun miraculously made an appearance so we parked and had a look around to see what was lurking amongst the roadside vegetation. Quite a few butterflies emerged from their hiding places to enjoy the late afternoon sunshine, including one I was particularly pleased to see. Whilst checking out a patch of Billygoat Weed – an invasive weed but the flowers are very attractive to butterflies – I spotted a male Narrow-brand Grass-skipper (Toxidia crocea). I’d photographed this species before, though only on 3 or 4 occasions and I’d never seen the upperside of a male. This guy cooperated nicely; he was not at all bothered by my presence as I followed him from flower to flower. Seeing him just about made up for the miserable weather we’d had to endure for most of the day.
(Freyeria putli)
(Toxidia crocea)
Tuesday 25th
I didn’t get much butterflying done on this day. Just for a change the weather was poor. Ross and I did spend some time at Koah, at the same spot where I saw my one and only Spotted Grass-skipper (Toxidia senta) in February 2020. I was hoping to see the White-margined Grass-dart (Ocybadistes hypomeloma) as it’s a species that has eluded me. It continued to elude me on this day as I didn’t see any Hesperids at all. Ross did find one hypomeloma, but it had disappeared before I got to the spot where he was.
There were few butterflies around that day; several Pale Pea-blues (Catochrysops panormus) but not much else. I didn’t take many photos, and few of those I did get were much good as the poor light and windy conditions made things rather tricky for me.
Wednesday 26th
Although Cairns continued to be wet and soggy, Ross and I found some lovely sunny weather inland at McLeod River. We’d gone there so that I could look for the Riverine Sedge-skipper (Hesperilla sexguttata) while Ross went elsewhere in search of Silky Azure (Ogyris oeretes) pupae.
I had long wanted to find sexguttata. I’d looked for it around Cairns, I’d tried near Darwin, and on my Townsville trip I’d caught a ferry to Magnetic Island specifically in the hope of finding this butterfly. Now I walked along a dried creek bed, which at times carries overflow from the McLeod River, looking carefully at the clumps of Cyperus sedges that are this skipper’s host plant. After about 20 minutes I spotted a small, sandy-coloured butterfly settled on one of the sedges. I knew it had to be sexguttata, though I was surprised how small it was. I’d imagined it would be a similar size to H. sarnia, which I’d seen at the top of Mount Stuart near Townsville, but this specimen was considerably smaller even though my butterfly books say there’s only a few millimetres difference. He was only slightly larger than some of the Grass-darts.
As usual when I’m seeing a species for the first time, my first one or two shots were rubbish as I snatched at them without really getting into a steady position. Fortunately this butterfly showed no sign of moving. I think he had only recently eclosed and wasn’t quite ready to fly yet, so I took plenty of shots of him from both sides while he just sat there. I hoped he’d open his wings so I could get shots of his upperside, but he didn’t move so after a while I began tapping the stem he was sitting on. Eventually he flew, but only about 6 inches before settling again. We repeated this pattern several times, so although I still couldn’t get upperside shots I was able to get photos of him on a variety of perches. I wouldn’t say this is one of the more spectacular butterfly species to look at, but I was still thrilled to finally see it.
Over the next hour or two I saw a few more sexguttata. They were not easy to follow in flight as they matched the colour of the sandy river bed perfectly, but once settled they were very easy to photograph so I was able to get some good images of them. The weather helped too as it was a bright sunny day so the light was good, and the wind was light too, especially down along the creek bed where it was quite sheltered from the breeze.
After getting my series of sexguttata photos I started paying more attention to the many other butterflies that were on the wing. There were a number of Grass-yellows; they were mostly Eurema alitha, of which I only have a handful of photos, but none of them showed the slightest inclination to pose for my camera. To my surprise some of the Crows I saw that day were Eichhorn’s Crow (Euploea eichhorni), which I’ve only ever see before in very damp habitats such as the Cairns Central Swamp. Unfortunately they didn’t follow the example of the Skippers; they spent much of the time dancing around amongst the vegetation and whilst they did land on flowers occasionally they never really sat still. Despite this I did get my first open-wing shot of this species, albeit not a very sharp image.
Shortly before we headed back towards Cairns I spotted a male Purple Moonbeam (Philiris innotata) sitting on a leaf a few metres back from the creek bed. I’ve never had a great deal of luck with Moonbeams. I’ve only seen two of the Philiris species – this one and P. nitens – and I haven’t seen many of those two. Typically they’ve been settled in the shade or, even worse, on the border between the light and the shade, so I was never very happy with the photos I’ve taken of these butterflies.
This innotata bucked the trend by sitting still out in the bright sunshine. He continued to pose nicely as I moved around to get different angles, and when I tapped his leaf he just flew around briskly for a moment before settling again nearby. He even opened his wings very slightly, allowing me a glimpse of his purple-blue upperside.
It had been a successful day, bringing me my second new species for the trip as well as my best photos to date of a Moonbeam. We briefly stopped at Koah on the way back, in the hope that Ocybadistes hypomeloma would become my 3rd new species, but it wasn’t to be.
(Hesperilla sexguttata)
(Philiris innotata)
Thursday 27th
Today’s forecast was for wet and windy conditions, but with the chance of the sun breaking through around mid-afternoon. My plan for the day was pretty simple; I’d start off by going to the Swamp in another attempt to see Telicota ohara, after which I’d make my way around the Botanic Gardens and then up the Yellow and Blue Arrow tracks through the Mount Whitfield Conservation Park, in the hope that the promised afternoon sunshine might bring out some interesting hilltoppers on Lumley Hill.
It wasn’t raining as I reached the Swamp, where I immediately spotted a Hawk Moth sitting at the edge of the grass verge along the roadside. I’m not much good at identifying moths, but after some Googling I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s probably a Brown-banded Hunter Hawkmoth (Thereta silhetensis). Unfortunately the rain quickly caught up with me and I saw very little else in the Swamp, except for a tiny but very cute frog who was much happier about the rain than I was.
The rain kept falling for a long time, sometimes lighter and sometimes heavier but never stopping, so I trudged over to the Botanic Gardens where I didn’t see any butterflies at all on the wing. Still hoping that the weather would brighten up at some point I reached the top of the Yellow Arrow track, and stopped for a minute at the sheltered picnic table to get my breath back. The sun miraculously came out and a few butterflies began to stir, including a lovely female Small Pied Blue (Megisba strongyle). I never see a lot of these tiny butterflies on my visits to Cairns, and they’re not the most cooperative subjects so I don’t have a lot of photos of them. This specimen only hung around long enough for me to get a couple of shots, but I was hopeful that her appearance was a sign that my luck was improving.
(Theretra silhetensis)
(Megisba strongyle)
Silly me for hoping. The rain began again; it wasn’t heavy but it now looked to have set in for some time. I was determined to keep going – or perhaps it was just plain masochism – so I headed up the Blue Arrow track towards Lumley Hill. As I plodded along slowly, head down against the rain, I couldn’t help thinking that the track gets longer and steeper each year. I kept going for a long time, before realising that I’d walked straight part the turn to Lumley Hill so I needed to retrace my steps for about 10 minutes.
As it happened, the weather forecast turned out to be correct for a change. I was just getting close to the hilltop when the sun broke through and it became much brighter than it had been all day, and what’s more it looked like it would be mostly sunny for the rest of the afternoon. A few butterflies began to emerge, though nothing particularly interesting. Or so I thought. I was mostly ignoring the Swifts that were active amongst the long grass, which was a bit silly of me because whilst both Lyell’s Swift (Pelopidas lyelli) and Dingy Swift (P.agna) are common around Cairns I really don’t have all that many photos of them. During one period when these Skippers were the only butterflies I could see I did take a couple of photos without paying much attention; it was only when I looked at the day’s shots on my laptop that evening that I spotted a Grey Swift (Parnara bada), a butterfly I’ve only seen twice before, both times in the Glasshouse Mountains.
It was still very windy and the hilltop was quite exposed, which made it difficult to get butterflies in focus. As the afternoon wore on it became quite cold up there, at least by Cairns standards, so I decided to head down the hillside beneath the powerlines that led down to Aeroglen. It was more sheltered from the wind here, and on the way down I did see a few more butterflies. I managed to get a decent shot of a Dusky Knight (Ypthima arctous), a butterfly that had been common in grassy areas on this trip but which up until now only settled down amongst the grass stems where I couldn’t get a clear shot.
About half-way down the wind grew stronger, which worked in my favour as a female Clearwing Swallowtail (Cressida cressida) gave up battling the wind and plonked herself down at ground level to wait for it to abate. Most unusually for this species she was easy to photograph, so I took some shots before continuing down the hill. Towards the bottom I came across 2 or 3 Zodiac Moths (Alcides metaurus); I’d seen them occasionally on this trip, though I hadn’t had a chance to get any photos. I’ve rarely had any luck with this large and gorgeous moth, which many people assume is a butterfly as it is diurnal and very colourful, even on my August 2007 trip when they were extremely abundant, but on this day one of them allowed me to get some shots.
The Zodiac Moth was almost the last thing I photographed that day, but my day wasn’t quite bookended by moths because soon afterwards I came across a number of Narrow-brand Darters (Telicota paceka) in the grass by the side of the path. They looked to be settling down for the night, as it was now getting quite late in the afternoon, but they were quite fresh specimens and a very attractive orange colour, so I took my last shots of the day before heading back to my hotel.
Back in my room I took off my saturated shoes and socks to find that I now had webbed feet as a result of them being wet for most of the week.
(Cressida cressida)
(Alcides metaurus)
Friday 28th
This was the last full day of the trip, and for once the forecast was decent. It was still supposed to be windy, but with a decent amount of sunshine and only a small chance of rain. I had decided to go to the Smithfield Conservation Park to the north of Cairns; it has a good variety of butterflies including a number of very interesting species. I haven’t had as much luck there in recent years as I did prior to 2013, because the spot I’d found most rewarding was brutally bulldozed to make the track more suitable for mountain bikers, but it’s still well worth a visit. My principal target this time was the Large Green-banded Blue (Danis danis), which despite its name is not a large butterfly and might better be called the Slightly Larger Than The Small Green-banded Blue.
As usual I took a bus up the highway and got off at Kewarra, from which it was just a short walk along Moore Road to reach the entrance to the Conservation Park. There was little to see when I first arrived, as it was still a bit early and most of the butterflies hadn’t yet had their morning coffee, so I took my time walking slowly up the path until I reached an elongated clearing on the right-hand side that I’d found productive in the past. There were several male Bright-orange Darters (Telicota augias) here, though they were all a little faded with age so not all that bright in colour. A hyperactive Pied Flat (Tagiades japetus) was also patrolling the same area, the first of several I was to see on this day. Towards the far end of the clearing, on the fringe of the rainforest, I encountered an Orange Grass-dart (Ocybadistes ardea), which was encouraging as I only had 3 or 4 shots of this little skipper prior to this trip. A damaged but very colourful Tailed Rustic (Vagrans egista) also posed briefly before heading off to do whatever Tailed Rustics do all day.
(Ocybadistes ardea)
(Tagiades japetus)
I continued up the path, past the water tower and up into the rainforest. At the steepest part of the track a male Cruiser surprised me by zipping down out of nowhere to sip minerals from a damp patch of ground right at my feet. He didn’t stay long so I soon continued up the hillside. I had been seeing a number of Red-banded Jezebels (Delias mysis) on the wing; they were mostly flying 3 or 4 metres above the ground but one of them very obligingly settled at a convenient height. I’ve generally found these lovely insects to be relatively difficult to approach, so I inched towards him until I was within range.
Further up I came upon a very busy patch of Snakeweed, another introduced plant species which is a magnet for butterflies. As well as a number of very common species there were 3 or 4 Pied Flats here, but the best image I took at this spot was of a very lovely Hamadryad (Tellervo zoilus). At first this delicate butterfly fluttered weakly around the area; it paused frequently to settle on the underside of a leaf, but always in a position that would have required contortions on my part in order to get a decent photo. Eventually the lure of the Snakeweed was too strong so I was able to get some nice shots without any trouble at all.
(Delias mysis)
(Tellervo zoilus)
I stayed around the patch of Snakeweed for a couple of hours; I’d photographed Danis danis at this same spot in February 2020, albeit a very damaged individual, and was hoping that I’d have some more luck this time. I eventually decided that it wasn’t going to happen so I headed back to the main track, which was about 50 metres downhill, but just before I reached it I spotted a Danis danis flying along the edge of the path at around head height. Fortunately for me it settled in a decent position; it was a lovely specimen and was content to just sit and wait while I messed around with my camera settings.
As the butterfly was in the shade with dark rainforest immediately behind the light wasn’t at all good. I soon noticed that when I took photos from a bit of an angle the colour of the wings looked pretty much like what I could see, but when I was at right angles to the butterfly the result was that the bands looked much more of a metallic green than they really were. Whoever coined the phrase “the camera doesn’t lie” presumably never tried photographing butterflies using a flash.
(Danis danis)
looking green
Just behind the Large Green-banded Blue’s perch was a very small clearing in amongst the trees. I noticed another danis flying around there, and so I made my way to the spot in the hope of being able to photograph one in decent light. It only took me a minute to get there, most of which was spent disentangling myself from some Wait-a-while that I hadn’t spotted until too late, by which time the danis was nowhere to be seen. This small area was also home to half a dozen Red-banded Jezebels; they all looked to be males and all of them settled repeatedly on vegetation no more than a few centimetres above the ground. I can’t resist taking photos of Jezebels, so I ended up wasting a lot of time stalking them only to find that they always took to the air just before I was able to get into position to photograph them. We played this game for a good hour, during which I did not get a single photo, before I decided I’d had enough.
On my way back down the hill I stopped again at the spot where I’d photograped my first butterflies of the day. The same species were there, though this time I was also able to get a shot of an Orange Migrant (Catopsilia scylla) that I spotted sitting quietly on a leaf. I would have liked to get more than one shot, but it took off like a bat out of hell, circled the area twice and then shot up over the trees at warp speed.
It was still only mid-afternoon so I decided to have a look around a little patch of trees at the corner of the Highway and Trinity Beach Road, where I’ve had some luck in the past. I wasn’t so lucky this time; I did photograph a Narrow-winged Awl (Badamia exclamationis) beneath a leaf and a female White-banded Plane (Phaedyma shepherdi), but it was slim pickings so I pushed onto Trinity Park to see if there was anything on the wing around Earl Hill.
By the time I got there the sun was getting low. It had been quite breezy all day and not very warm, but in was now getting a bit nippy in the shade. I started up the path but soon decided not to bother going up to the summit as I thought it was now probably too late to find much up there. Before heading back to the bus stop I did round off the day by getting some pics of a male Blue-banded Eggfly (Hypolimnas alimena). He posed quite nicely with his wings spread wide; if he had been a fresh specimen he would have been a splendid sight, but he was rather worn and faded so his colour was dimmed considerably.
All in all it was quite a successful day. I had been able to get some good shots of my main target species, and had seen quite a wide variety of butterflies.
(Catopsilia scylla)
Hypolimnas alimena
Saturday 29th
As I was flying back to Sydney in the afternoon, the sadistic Cairns weather finally provided a beautiful day just to show me what it would no doubt be like for the next couple of weeks. It was warm and sunny with just a gentle breeze.
I had to checkout of my hotel before 10am, so I sorted that out early on and left my luggage in Reception whilst I headed to the Swamp for one last go at getting better shots of Telicota ohara. There was no sign of it, or of anything else, so I decided to head for the spot where the previous year I had finally photographed the North Queensland subspecies of the Small Brown Crow (Euploea darchia).
On the way there I had a bit of luck when I spotted a beautiful female White-banded Line-blue (Nacaduba kurava) on some mangroves close to Collins Avenue. I was rather surprised to see her laying eggs as I’d mostly seen this species in rainforest sunspots, some distance from mangroves, but I took the opportunity to photograph her as she busied herself amongst the foliage. When I checked my books later on I saw that this butterfly uses a number of different host plants.
Only a few metres away I found a Bright Oak-blue (Arhopala madytus) hanging around a green ants’ nest in a tree overhanging the footpath. I took a number of photos and in one of them the butterfly jumped as I took the shot, allowing me to get a good look at the upperside. I could see that he was a male, and after observing him sit right at the entrance to the ants’ nest I speculated that he might be waiting for the emergence of a female.
Mindful that I didn’t have much time I pressed on, pausing occasionally to photograph butterflies, until I reached the darchia spot. I would have liked to get shots of darchia and/or E. eichhorni, which I have also seen there, but I didn’t see either species. There were several Red-banded Jezebels, settling almost at ground level exactly as I’d seen yesterday, though this time one of them remained in place whilst I took a couple of photos. It was now time for me to head to the hotel, so I reluctantly turned around and made my way back. I went by a different route, which took me alongside more mangroves where I was hoping to get a glimpse of Copper Jewels (Hypochrysops apelles) or Narcissus Jewels (H. narcissus), but I didn’t see either and the only butterfly I photographed was another female N. kurava laying eggs.
At the airport, whilst waiting for my flight to be called, I looked through my photos on my laptop and reflected on the trip. I had photographed two butterflies that were new to me, and had got ‘upgrades’ for several other species, but it had been another somewhat disappointing trip. As with the previous few visits I felt like there wasn’t all that much point in my going back to Cairns, at least for a few years, particularly as I have such bad luck with the weather. I suspect I’ll be back next year…
(Nacaduba kurava)
Arhopala madytus
Photo Gallery Updates
New species :
I have also added photos to the following species pages :
- Papilio ambrax (Ambrax Swallowtail)
- Papilio demoleus (Chequered Swallowtail)
- Cressida cressida (Clearwing Swallowtail)
- Ornithoptera euphorion (Cairns Birdwing)
- Catopsilia pomona (Lemon Migrant)
- Catopsilia scylla (Orange Migrant)
- Eurema herla (Pink Grass-yellow)
- Eurema hecabe (Large Grass-yellow)
- Appias paulina (Yellow Albatross)
- Cepora perimale (Caper Gull)
- Delias mysis (Red-banded Jezebel)
- Euploea sylvester (Two-brand Crow)
- Euploea tulliolus (Purple Crow)
- Euploea eichhorni (Eichhorn’s Crow)
- Tellervo zoilus (Hamadryad)
- Cethosia cydippe (Red Lacewing)
- Acraea terpsicore (Tawny Coster)
- Vindula arsinoe (Cruiser)
- Cupha prosope (Bordered Rustic)
- Vagrans egista (Tailed Rustic)
- Phaedyma shepherdi (White-banded Plane)
- Junonia hedonia (Chocolate Argus)
- Yoma sabina (Lurcher)
- Hypolimnas alimena (Blue-banded Eggfly)
- Charaxes sempronius (Tailed Emperor)
- Melanitis leda (Evening Brown)
- Mycalesis perseus (Dingy Bush-brown)
- Mycalesis terminus (Orange Bush-brown)
- Ypthima arctous (Dusky Knight)
- Philiris innotata (Purple Moonbeam)
- Arhopala madytus (Bright Oak-blue)
- Arhopala micale (Shining Oak-blue)
- Hypolycaena phorbas (Black-spotted Flash)
- Deudorix democles (White-spotted Flash)
- Eirmocides margarita (Trident Pencil-blue)
- Nacaduba kurava (White-banded Line-blue)
- Danis danis (Large Green-banded Blue)
- Psychonotis caelius (Small Green-banded Blue)
- Prosotas dubiosa (Purple Line-blue)
- Theclinesthes miskini (Wattle Blue)
- Jamides phaseli (Purple Cerulean)
- Jamides aleuas (White-banded Cerulean)
- Catochrysops panormus (Pale Pea-blue)
- Everes lacturnus (Orange-tipped Pea-blue)
- Megisba strongyle (Small Pied-blue)
- Euchrysops cnejus (Spotted Pea-blue)
- Freyeria putli (Jewelled Grass-blue)
- Badamia exclamationis (Narrow-winged Awl)
- Tagiades japetus (Pied Flat)
- Toxidia crocea (Narrow-brand Grass-skipper)
- Parnara bada (Grey Swift)
- Pelopidas lyelli (Lyell’s Swift)
- Ocybadistes ardea (Orange Grass-dart)
- Suniana sunias (Wide-brand Grass-dart)
- Arrhenes marnas (Swamp Darter)
- Telicota colon (Pale-orange Darter)
- Telicota augias (Bright-orange Darter)
- Telicota paceka (Narrow-brand Darter)
- Cephrenes trichopepla (Yellow Palm Dart)
- Sabera caesina (White-clubbed Swift)
Note: I still have not got around to updating my website to bring it into line with the reclassification of a number of Hesperids. I’m sure I’ll get onto it eventually…
Sounds like some of my experiences here in Africa, but my bad weather luck seems to be with the succulent karoo in Namaqualand. The time to be there is late August to early October, the thin end of spring when it usually rains cats and dogs. I’ve been there with several mates on rained off trips when we only got a day and a half’s butterflying out of a fortnight. Notwithstanding, I did manage to get some reasonable shots that appear in my books, but one mate used to refer to ‘Woodhall’s Personal Cloud Cover’. In Zimbabwe it was similar and I was known as ‘Rainmaker Woodhall’. Farmers used to welcome me with open arms.
Rainforests were a bit different. The first time LepSoc made it to the fabled Kakamega Forest in western Kenya, we were split into two teams – one went south-west then north (I was in that one) and the other straight west from Nairobbery. We arrived at the end of a cool wet day (after some great sport in the arid Rift Valley and the Afromontane forests on its rim), and my ‘Personal Cloud Cover’ mate was getting ready to leave in the morning when our week was about to start. He’d been wanting to visit Kakamega for a lifetime and was very glum, saying ‘better make sure you’ve got a good supply of gin’ – the Rondo Retreat, where we were staying, is as dry as a bone. Well, in the morning, the weather was fantastic and we had four days of heaven. I was a murderer in those days and all the butterflies I saw were in the collection, but what an introduction to my first real Equatorial Rainforest!
I’ve just returned from a trip to Cairns this Wednesday. We arrived when that wet band of rain swept across the top end of Australia. It was a bit wet but not too bad. Out at Undara lava tubes the weather was fine and warm and I saw the most different species of butterflies there. We were there for just over a week and I saw some of the species you saw including two brand crow (out at Chillago) and hamadryad (Babinda Boulders). At Undara I saw 4 or 5 Blue argus near the 100 mile swamp. With one there was a meadow argus which had white antennae like the blue argus. It made me wonder whether they hybridise. I’m new into butterfly photographing so had been able to add 16 or so new butterflies to my collection of photos. If my wife lets me I’ll be going again.
Such a great read, so very inspirational. Great images as usual too
Great to see some new posts on the blog!