Rarities

Hello Alan, I'm not far away, near Penrith. My main interest is Australian butterflies, but I've also collected in the Solomons. I also collect other genera (Papilionidae, Delias etc) through trade, from around the world. You may be interested to hear that back around 1990 I discovered a small colony of Hypochrysops cyane in our local park. I was unable to find it's larval food plant, Angophora costata anywhere in the area. After many days of lying on my back searching the trees with a pair of binoculars I eventually spotted a female laying eggs. This proved to be a new food plant, Eucalyptus moluccana, which I duly published. I reared quite a few specimens from eggs and found that they were quite happy with several other food plants I gave them (unpublished). The colony survived in a series of boom or bust years (mostly bust with only a very few individuals seen) for many years. I haven't searched for it for at least 3 years now, so I can't be sure the colony is still there.
Other interesting Lycaenids I have found locally include 3 species of Acrodipsas on the same hill top in the Blue Mountains. A aurata, A brisbanensis and A myrmecophila. I also have bands on Casuarinas along the Nepean River which sometimes produce Ogyris amaryllis. On one occasion only I found 2 larvae of Ogyris ianthis under bands on mistletoe trees in Galston. From these I reared 2 females. I have also reared O genoveva, O abrota and O olane in the Sydney area.

Hypochrysops including several rows of cyane View Attachment
Ogyris including amaryllis and 2 female ianthis View Attachment

Ogyris genoveva gela View Attachment

David Hall.