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Butterflies

Reference: “Field guide to butterflies of the Australian Capital Territory”. Suzi Bond, Canberra 2016

There are about 87 species of butterflies which can be seen in the ACT. It is not known how many of these can be found on Red Hill.

A very small part of the Red Hill Nature Reserve has been systematically surveyed, so it is predicted that the following list are likely to be found in the Reserve.

 

  • A Butterfly Walk was conducted by Dr Suzi Bond on a hot Sunday 22 January 2017 at which the following butterflies were sighted:
  • Dainty Swallowtail 
  • Bronze Flat
  • Cabbage White
  • Spotted Jezebel
  • Lesser Wanderer
  • Australian Painted Lady
  • Yellow Admiral
  • Meadow Argus
  • Common Brown
  • Marbled Xenica
  • Stencilled Hairstreak
  • Two-spotted Line-blue
  • Common Grass-blue
  • Saltbush Blue

 

  • 2018-19 Butterfly season (September 2018 to April 2019). Report by Suzi Bond

There were 67 butterfly species recorded across the ACT for the 2018-19 season. The ACT list has 88 butterfly species, and most of the species not recorded were either vagrants or rare species unlikely to be recorded from year to year, or migrants which didn’t turn up this year. I’m surprised there were no ACT records for the Bright Shield-skipper (although there was a record from just over the border in NSW near Piccadilly Circus), and the Yellow Jewel. It was brilliant to have a new species recorded for the ACT with the White-veined Sand-skipper record.

For Red Hill, there was a total of 19 species recorded, and the highlight species were Golden Ant-blue and Moonlight Jewel.

Red Hill was a good location for finding migratory species like Caper White and Small Grass-yellow compared to other reserves, and it was the only reserve to record Long-tailed Pea-blue. It was also good to see Stencilled and Amethyst Hairstreaks recorded, and the Chequered Coppers had a fantastic year.

It was surprising not to record species like Bronze Flat,  Yellow Ochre, Greenish Grass-dart, or Shouldered Brown which have been recorded in other years for this reserve.

Red Hill Butterflies 2018-19

Dainty Swallowtail
Small Grass-yellow
Cabbage White
Caper White
Spotted Jezebel
Australian Painted Lady
Yellow Admiral
Meadow Argus
Tailed Emperor
Common Brown
Golden Ant-blue
Chequered Copper
Moonlight Jewel
Stencilled Hairstreak
Amethyst Hairstreak
Two-spotted Line-blue
Saltbush Blue
Long-tailed Pea-blue
Common Grass-blue
  • The Small Ant Blue butterfly (Acrodipsas Myrmecophila)

Ref: “The Small Ant-Blue butterfly in the ACT” Suzi Bond. Australian Bureau of Statistics, Environment Division. Technical Report, August 2019 ACT Government, Canberra

The Regenerators volunteers have identified a number of Coconut Ant sites in the Red Hill Nature Reserve, which could foster populations of the Small Ant-Blue butterfly.  Owing to the rarity of this butterfly, locations of Coconut ant colonies and butterfly sightings are not publicised.