Hot sunny weather - butterfly weather

Eye-spots on a Meadow Argus' Junonia villida wings

It has been hot in Canberra for the past month and much of the wildlife has been lying low to keep cool. But it has been good for butterflies and I have met hundreds, thousands, of them on walks in various parts of the bush around the city.

The mornings have been especially good to see them close up and still, before they warm up and fly about too quickly to identify. And footpaths make ideal sunny spots for them to spread their wings and bask in the sun. I was walking through clouds of butterflies in places.

The season is well on and some were a bit tattered with broken edges to their wings.

Once they had warmed up, I found it easier to sit still near a bush or herb that was in flower and wait for the butterflies to settle and feed. I am always amazed at how they can guide their long thing probosces into the narrow tubes of flowers to reach the nectar. Precision feeding.

A Chequered Copper Lucia limberia basks on a path. A male, as he has single spots on his upper-forewings. The females have two spots on each wing. These seem to have been especially abundant in Canberra this year.

The undersides of the Chequered Coppers' wings are similar to various species of blue butterflies, but the flash of orange on the forewings identifies them.

A Stencilled Hairstreak Jalmenus ictinus hangs from a grass flower-head, giving a clear view of the tails on its hind wings.

The tails are less obvious, and even the whole insect is hidden, when they perch in a cluster of flowers. This one had warmed up, so do go early for good clear views of butterflies when they are still either on the ground or plants.

Autumn Butterflies

A Common Brown  Heteronympha mesope sits hidden in the leaf-litter

Summer is now long-passed in Canberra and the butterflies are dwindling in number. It seems not long ago that I was walking through clouds of butterflies whenever I walked through the bush. Now there are only a few flitting up from the ground as they see me approach. They are weak and cold, slow to move, yet still difficult to see and creep up on. To catch a few on camera, I had to wait til I flushed them, then watch and carefully mark the exact place where they landed. As soon as they landed and closed their wings they would just disappear from view. So good is their camouflage.

They look so much like fallen leaves

The two species I have seen in the past week have been the Common Brown and the Meadow Argus. Both have dull grey brown underwing colouring, which is all that can be seen when they lie with their wings closed. The bright orange topsides of their wings only show when they see a glimpse of sunshine and open them to warm up in the gentle heat.

A female Common Brown opens her wings to catch some soft sunshine

Even then, the soft tones of the oranges, yellows and blues merge well with the dead leaves, twigs and grass stems. Beautiful seasonal autumn tones. Something to linger on, as my next post, next week, will be on a fresh spring topic. I'll be migrating north any day now.

A Meadow Argus Junoia villida basks on a warm substrate of gravel amongst the leaf litter

Too hot sometimes

Meadow Argus Junonia villida

When I came home this morning there was a butterfly sun-basking on the wall next to the front door, which faces east. It had clearly found the wall a perfect place to catch the morning sun for its daily warm-up. However, by the time I returned it was sitting with its wings closed to avoid the ever warmer sunshine.

The shadow cast by the butterfly was so clear

Then, as I walked past the butterfly I noticed how it seemed to be in a rather awkward pose. It was aligned askew with the wall.

A minimal shadow

But as ever, things make sense in nature. The butterfly had aligned itself along the direction of the sunshine, and angle, so that it cast the smallest possible shadow.

It was holding itself perfectly, all in line with the sunshine by leaning and twisting its body

I took a look from its front, and I was impressed by how it held itself stationery, although I expect that it had moved ever so slightly to re-align as the sun rose and arced across the sky.

Very well adapted - the butterfly was even tilting its body to minimise exposure to the sunshine

As for the species, a Meadow Argus, I usually only see them in the nearby forest glades, often feeding on ground cover weeds, and they are usually much to flighty to photograph. I have seen them in the garden over the past few weeks, but this is the first one I've managed to grab a picture of.  This is a freshly emerged example, note its clean complete and un-frayed edges. My butterfly guru, Suzi Bond, tells me there has been a noticeable emergence in recent weeks.