Day: April 18, 2020

Late summer/ early autumn is an excellent time for butterflies. A visit to the small Lantana patch near the road on a sunny day yielded more than a dozen species within half an hour.

From the large Monarch,

Blue Tiger,

Lemon Migrant (lots of them!),

and Blue-banded Eggfly

to the smaller Caper Gull,

Green-spotted Triangle,

Blue Argus

and even smaller Dusky Knight.

Several species of ‘Blues’ (family Lycaenidae) are tiny, like this Purple Cerulean (wingspan 23mm)

and the Small Green-banded Blue.

but most are getting ready to pupate

Mum and joey have been around frequently, feeding on a variety of plants, like Acacia melanoxylon, Wilkiea pubescens, Smilax australis, Syzygium oleosum and Bursaria spinosa.

The little one is now climbing quite confidently and often feeding a little away from her mother.

 

I started to write this blog in February. Now in mid-April, the joey has grown considerably, and on one day we saw it on its own. Most of the time it is still close to mum and cuddling up to her often.