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.
- Butterfly expert Suzi Bond surveyed a small part of Red Hill in 2014 and again in November 2015, in a forested area at the summit, and around the summit restaurant and car park, where the species listed below were identified.
- Amethyst Hairstreak
- Australian Painted Lady (photo from Red Hill)
- Bronze Flat
- Cabbage White
- Chequered Copper
- Common Brown
- Common Grass-Blue
- Dainty Swallowtail
- Dark Purple Azure
- Glasswing
- Marbled Xenica
- Meadow Argus
- Moonlight Jewel
- Shouldered Brown
- Spotted Jezebel
- Stencilled Hairstreak
- Tailed Emperor
- Two-spotted Line-blue
- Wattle Blue
- Yellow Admiral (photo from 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.
- Barred Skipper
- Broad-margined Azure
- Caper White
- Fringed Heath-blue
- Greenish Grass-dart
- Heath Ochre
- Imperial Jezebel
- Long-tailed Pea-blue
- Montane Ochre
- Orchard Swallowtail
- Saltbush Blue
- Varied Dusky-blue
- White-banded Grass-dart
- Yellow Ochre
- 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)
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.