ANBG: Australian National Butterfly Gardens

 Also Water dragons!

Following a tip on the COG Chatline I went to the Australian National Botanic Gardens (ANBG) today to see if I could spot the Imperial Hairstreaks (Jalmenus evagoras) reported at the top of the Rainforest Gully.  This post is a resume of what transpired.  (NB: I have added a little detail and some links to the initial version of this post.)

The Hairstreaks were present as reported although the colony I found was located on an Acacia mearnsii rather than an A. dealbata as suggested in the original tip.  The key point is that the shrub involved is on the south side of the outer road opposite the bottle trees.

Several other members of COG have been to see the butterflies and one at least took a picture.  

As will be apparent from several of the images below the pupae in particular were being investigated by ants.  So was I if I brushed the shrub without care!   It appears the ants are attracted by an exudate from the caterpillars and then defend the larvae and pupae from predation.  (The ants are a particular species.)




The larvae were few in number (obviously, from the number of pupa cases, there had been a lot there in the past) and were receiving attention from the ants, but I believe they were still alive.

On the way up the bitumen road to this site I was impressed with the number of Common Browns (Heteronympha merope) around.  They were almost like a tropical cloud of butterflies.  Most of these were too active to photograph but eventually one settled for a photo-op.
Later in my stroll I met Jenny from COG who mentioned that the previous day she had seen Macleay's Swallowtails (Graphium macleayanum)  near the Rock Garden Waterfall.  I have previously searched for these butterflies so went back and saw a lot of them feeding as she had suggested on the Purple Loosestrife: in this case at the top of the fall, which meant only one of my images (at about 7m range came out reasonable.  BUT THAT IS ALL I NEEDED!
The Gippsland Water Dragons, for which the gardens are renowned, of various sexes and sizes were also evident.




Comments

Denis Wilson said…
The Imperial Hairstreaks are interesting. Never seen them.
I love the Macleay's Swallowtails.
The Water Dragons are not as nice as your own one.
They "freak out" the Japanese Tourists at the ANBG.
7 February 2011 at 20:36:00 GMT+11
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