My God, my memory is failing! Of course you also have those two.
Delias mysis is found in three subspecies, D. m. mysis down the Queensland coast, Cooktown southwards, D. m. waterhousei is found only at the extreme northern tip of Cape York, and D. m. aestiva, from the Darwin area.
You also have two subspecies of D. ennia, D. e. nigidius, on the Queensland coast south from Cairns down to approx. Townsville, and D. e. tindalii, from just above Cookstown northwards to approx. Cape Grenville.
Some of the ranges may have changed a bit since my last records, but they are as up to date as I have. Some may have now been synonymised! I have been concentrating so much on Samui and regional species that I have completely neglected the Delias.
Incidentally, my Delias website is now closed. A friend is supposed to be reopening it up under his ownership, but it is taking longer than anticipated.
For a change, we had good weather this weekend with only a little rain yesterday morning. I decided not to waste the conditions since rain is forecast for the remainder of the week. Yesterday, I returned to butterfly bush and the flowering Tea Trees at Fitzroy Falls Resivoir. After that, I went for a walk of a few hours along the eastern rim of the gorge. In general, I did not see many butterflies.
Numbers and diversity of butterflies has been low this year. I assume that this has been due to our heavy summer rain. Last week, the rains were torrential along the east coast and there are many places in flood at the moment.
I will start with habitat shots on the rim of the Fitzroy Fall gorge. I walked this with hopes of finding Eastern Iris Skippers and Silver-spotted Ochres that I encountered in this area last year. Unfortunately, I saw neither of these and in fact, was not able to take a single butterfly photo. There were a few Barred Skippers, Splendid Ochres, Common Grass-Blues, Rock Ringlets and Black Jezebels in the area but none cooperated for photos.
Fitzroy Falls is a beautiful place and always a nice place for a walk.
The main falls:
I leaned over the rail to take this shot of the falls:
Rice Flower (Pimelia linifolia), a host plant for some of the skippers.
Mountain Devil (Lamberta formosa)
A pretty pea:
A cone flower (Petrophile pulchella)
Christmas Bells (Blandfordia nobilis), a lovely lily that grows on sandy soil.
Fan Flower:
One of the Trigger Plants (Stylidium sp.). Do these grow in Singapore? They are incredible plants. To see examples of these and the trigger in action, have a look at this link: http://www.gdaywa.com/wildflowers/triggerplants.php
The Tea Trees (Leptospermum sp.) at the Fitzroy Falls Resivoir only had a few remaining flowers. I did find others on the return trip that looked good. I will need to revisit these soon before they also drop their petals.
Butterflies at Fitzroy Falls Resivoir included a number of Spotted Browns (Heteronympha paradelpha). These were the first of the species that I have observed this season. A number of the satyrids emerge late and are only active from Feb-April or so.
Marbled Xenicas (Geitoneura klugii) were not more common and Ringed Xenicas were less common than at the start of the year.
Splendid Ochre (Trapezites symmomus). These are such big skippers. They usually fly slowly with noisy wingbeats.
These might be my final shots of the Imperial Jezebel (Delias harpalyce) until next season. The butterfly bush has nearly completed its flowering this season. After that, I usually only see the Jezebels high overhead.
An Imperial Jezebel with a Yellow Admiral (Vanessa itea).
Jacky Lizard (Amphibolurus muricatus): they blend well with fallen branches and are easy to overlook.
Ants that had formed a bivoauc against a fallen log.
A Peregrine Falcon harassed a juvenile Wedge-tailed Eagle as it soared over the gorge. Both of these birds are an uncommon sight at Fitzroy Falls.
Great butterfly shots. The flowers of the triggerplant are very interesting. I looked at the animation in the link and it seemed very cute when the male and female flower parts just popped out. If someone accidentally brushed against the flower, will the stigma etc pop out?
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I looked at the animation in the link and it seemed very cute when the male and female flower parts just popped out. If someone accidentally brushed against the flower, will the stigma etc pop out?
