Small Ant Blue Butterfly – Acrodipsas myrmecophila
Red Hill is part of the woodland patch that contains the largest known breeding population of this rare butterfly and about a quarter of all known breeding sites. While the butterfly has been recorded on Red Hill we are yet to locate any breeding localities. Please go to https://canberra.naturemapr.org/species/292 to see what the eggs, larvae and adults look like. The butterfly has a complex relationship with the small black Coconut Ant (it smells like a chocolate crackle when squashed). The ant lives in large fallen logs and sometimes dead and living large trees. It breeds across most of the warmer months if you could keep an eye out for it that would be great.
Image courtesy of Owen Holton. Male (brown wing) butterfly.
Image courtesy of Owen Holton. Female (blue wing) butterfly
Image courtesy of Christine Darwood. Underside of butterfly