A few from the ACT and the Snowies

[Silverstreak]

David ,

What a wonderful bag of various species of butterflies !! Which are all new to me!

The Imperial Hairstreak is a show stealer!!!

Thanks for sharing !

[Psyche]

Many of the Satyrids have quite colourful undersides.

I 've read that some of the beautiful Delias can reach pest proportion.

However, the butterfly I am most interested in for a long time is Papilio anactus. I am curious if this is an evolving mimic of Cressida cressida , since they look alike.
Do the females at least flies in the slow manner of mimics. Do their distributions overlap to a large extent ( sympatric ) which will suggest a model - mimic evolution.

TL Seow

[moloch]

Thanks very much, guys, for the remarks. Imperial Hairstreaks are one of the very nice butterflies. I've only seen a single member of this species before this trip so it was nice to observe a number of these. I will post more photos from another quick trip to Canberra yesterday.

However, the butterfly I am most interested in for a long time is Papilio anactus. I am curious if this is an evolving mimic of Cressida cressida , since they look alike.
Do the females at least flies in the slow manner of mimics. Do their distributions overlap to a large extent ( sympatric ) which will suggest a model - mimic evolution.
TL Seow

Hello Seow,

That is an interesting observation. Acraea andromacha and Cressida cressida are both similar in appearance and in flight but I had not really thought about Papilio anactus. Maybe that is due to my unfamiliarity with the species. I don't see it here on the coast at all and have only seen it a few times in Victoria and recently in the ACT. According to the field guide, P. anactus has a large distribution on the east coast and it overlaps broadly with both C. cressida and A. andromacha, especially in Queensland.

I only saw males on the hilltop so I cannot comment on the flight of females. The males tended to fly slowly back and forth and perched often on stems of grass or shrubs. They were capable of fast flight and at times would join in the mixed species swarm that raced over the canopy. Mostly, though, they remained near the ground. I suppose that they did resemble C. cressida in behaviour.

Here are a few more shots of the three species.

[moloch]

I had to return to Canberra yesterday to pick up my son. I decided to make a day of it so I took leave from work and headed down there early in the morning. I spent the morning hours on Mt. Ainslie, then moved to the botanical gardens. I finally the day on the summit of Black Mountain, another isolated hill.

Here are photos of a few from the day.

One of my favourites were these Chequered Coppers. When the day finally warmed, they were everywhere along tracks around the summit of the hill.





I saw more of these blues that initially confused me last week. I think that the species is Saltbush Blue (Theclinesthes serpentata).



I originally thought that these were Wattle Blue (Theclinesthes miskini) but now, I am not certain. I will need to do more study. These butterflies were numerous on a few sapling wattles.

EDIT: I found the correct identity on the net. These are Amethyst Hairstreaks (Jalmenus icilius), a wattle specialist.

[Psyche]

David,

Thnx for the info. on Papilio anactus. I was intriqued because it seems to be wearing red warning colour prominently.

If a palatable ( which I assumed this to be ) species shows warning colour, then it can only be wearing it under false pretense.

It may be in the early stage of mimicry, but this is all pure speculation.

TL Seow

[WillFolsom]

David: I understand you got the Tamron T180mm. You seem to be putting it to good use. It's on my list to buy once the weather warms up. Good to see the good results you are getting as well. william

[moloch]

Thanks, William. These shots were taken with the T180. It is a good lens but the learning curve for me has been a big one. I look forward to yours before too long. When will the butterflies be active again in your area?

Another shot of the political centre of Australia:



Here are a couple of shots of the habitat at the summit of Mt. Ainslie. The forest here is mostly composed of several species of Eucalyptus and wattles (Acacia sp.).



The trees at the summit were not big. This is the area where the mixed-species swarm of butterflies raced back and forth. They usually remained above the canopy but sometimes would drop lower and fly along the road.



I tried to take a photo of the flock but they were always too fast for me. I did manage this shot of a Red-spotted Jezebel that was in pursuit of a Blue Triangle. When I first saw Red-spotted Jezebels last year in the desert near Bourke, I thought that they were a slow flying species. Here on the summit, however, they were speedsters and they chased each other as well as other species of butterflies that joined in the swarm. I saw several more species of butterflies in the swarm on this second visit. New additions included a Macleay's Swallowtail, a Chequered Swallowtail, and surprisingly, a few Common Browns and Marbled Xenicas. The latter two normally flit around the forest floor so it seemed odd to see them flying high above the canopy with the other butterflies.



Tailed Emperor (Polyura sempronius) -- our one and only Polyura. There were two of these at the summit on Thursday. They would chase the other butterflies for awhile and then settle on leaves 3m or so up in the trees.



Red-spotted Jezebels (Delias aganippe) were the dominant species in the mixed-species flock. They were colourful butterflies but unfortunately uncooperative for photos. I usually saw them in flight although this one was warming itself early in the morning near the top of a Eucalyptus.




Shouldered Brown (Heteronympha penelope):

[WillFolsom]

David:

Last night the night temperatures were below freezing. Tonight a bit above and tomorrow is scheduled to be warm. March is typically cold/warm/cold. By the end of the month it is definately warmer. Cherry blossoms predicted to come out by March 30th. That means I should begin to spot the first European cabbage white fluttering around (usually the first) followed closely by the odd sulphur and possibly by the spring azure. We'll see increasing numbers of different species slowly come out, but the real season starts in July and ends in September.

I spend my time photographing ice formations and snow scenes, but am now focusing on the crocus and snowdrops that have appeared despite the cold weather. Then Cherry blossoms, daffodils, and tulips before the spring blooms hit in full force towards the end of April.

In May I'm heading off to Italy, Croatia, Greece, and Turkey for a cruise. We return home via London. We'll stay with friends whose daughter resides in Australia. We will chat about possibly visiting Australia with them. Might work. Would fly home via Singapore if I can find a place to stay that doesn't cost US$10,000 a night. Maybe an Elderhostel? Small hotel? Certainly not the big name hotels.

William

[moloch]

David:
We'll see increasing numbers of different species slowly come out, but the real season starts in July and ends in September.

In May I'm heading off to Italy, Croatia, Greece, and Turkey for a cruise. We return home via London. We'll stay with friends whose daughter resides in Australia. We will chat about possibly visiting Australia with them. Might work. Would fly home via Singapore if I can find a place to stay that doesn't cost US$10,000 a night. Maybe an Elderhostel? Small hotel? Certainly not the big name hotels.

William

Hello William,

I have been looking through the Audubon Field Guide to North American Butterflies. Do you see Coppers in your area? If so, I would love to see photos of these. Some, like the American Copper, are very similar to the Jewels here in Australia. They really are stunning.

I hope that you are taking along the camera and lenses to Europe. It would be nice to see photos from that area as well. The following link is to a site that seems quite useful:

http://www.leps.it/

Last year was my wife's 60th. I had a surprise birthday party for her in Melbourne and gave her tickets to Rome as her birthday gift. We will spend 6 weeks in southern Italy in September/October. I've been looking over the above site and it looks like there should still be a few butterflies active in the autumn. I will be lugging the T180 around just in case I find a few leps or herps.

If you come to Oz, let me know. I would be happy to show you around the Sydney area. May is late autumn in Australia and the southern cities such as Melbourne can be quite cool. Sydney is never freezing so there always is some activity albeit subdued in the winter. The northern areas, such as Cairns/Darwin, have butterfly activity in all months so depending upon where you travel, you should still find butterflies to photograph in Australia. This site is quite useful for many species. It helped me sort out the Amethyst Hairstreak:

http://www.purvision.com/butterflies...ore/index.html

[WillFolsom]

David:

I'm particularly interested in encountering all kinds of extremely poisonous species of deadly snakes. Your photographs have had a magical affect on me...or maybe not.

In any event, it somewhat depends on our UK friends and my wife. I'll work out our plans with you in mind. Have no idea where or when this might happen. William