Butterfly Host Plants

I have asked what is my favorite butterfly host plant.
That's a tough question but i'd have to say.
The Native Mulberry, Pipturus argenteus.
This plant is easy to grow, it's a fast-growing shrub or small tree. In nature, it can be found on the margins of rainforests in south-eastern, subtropical Queensland. Often grown as a pioneer tree.
Its the host plant for the Jezebel nymph butterfly, Symbrenthia geoffroyi, previously known as the Mynes geoffroyi.

The fruits of the Native Mulberry are small and white, almost translucent in appearance. Like strawberries, they bear their seeds on the outside. They are soft and juicy, with a sweet and delicate flavour. The plant has separate male and female plants, with the female plant bearing the fruit. Tiny white flowers appear in the leaf axils from summer to winter followed by small, white, mulberry-like fruit which ripen from late winter to spring.

I think I paid $1.50 for my first tub stock plant from IndigiScapes Native Nursery in Redlands, Brisbane.
The Jezabel Nymph butterfly will lay a clutch of eggs all on the same leaf and the eggs will hatch all at once, mow down the leaf and all trundle off to find the next leaf to eat. They will all pupate together and then they all hatch together. The butterfly wings are a beautiful collection of red, yellow, black and blue on one side and white on the other. Which works as great camouflage from the birds, who are easily confused when a butterfly stops and closes it's wings.

If you live in South East Queensland, Australia,
with spring just around the corner, you may be thinking about starting or expanding your butterfly garden.

You will need a good mix of plants with pollen to feed the butterflies and host plants for the butterflies to lay eggs on and for the caterpillars to eat.

You will need to consider the space you have to grown these plants and what local butterflies you can attract to your garden.

I have in the past sold and still recommend a book written for this specific area (written by Frank Jordan and Helen Schwencke in the West End, Brisbane) and covering the region, South-east Queensland and Northern New South Wales (with ranges extending to Sydney and Gladstone). As a great starting point.

Create More butterflies. Contains over 250 full-colour photos of living butterfly life cycles, eggs, caterpillars, and host plants.
You can still purchase directly from
https://earthling.com.au/create-more-butterflies/
Or order it from your local library.

Create More Butterflies | Earthling Enterprises Create More Butterflies : a guide to 48 butterflies and their host-plants for south-east Queensland and northern New South Wales by Frank Jordan & Helen Schwencke. Brisbane: Earthling Enterprises, 2005 Over 5,500 copies sold May 2020 – Create More Butterflies is available once again. It has a new ...

Coastal Copper butterfly, Lycaena salustius.
It is endemic to New Zealand. It is known in Te Rio Māori as, pepe para riki.
The wingspan is 24–35 mm.
Adults are on wing between October and April.

Host plants are in the Muehlenbeckia family.

Winter solstice salutations to you all

The amazing caterpillars of the Jezebel Nymph butterfly, Mynes geoffroyi.
The butterfly lays many eggs on one leaf and they all hatch at the same time.

Host plants;
Native Mulberry, Pipturus argenteus – This is the most common and preferred host plant for the butterfly. also a great bush tucker plant with small but tasty fruit.
Shiny-leaved Stinging Tree, Dendrocnide photinophylla.
Gympie Bush, Dendrocnide moroides.

The Red-banded Jezebel butterfly, Delias mysis.
Habitat: Found in North Queensland in the coastal tropics of Queensland from Mackay to the tip of Cape York., Northen Territory subspecies found in swampland and mangroves.

The upper wing surface of the Red-banded Jezebel butterfly is white with black border at the outer wing edge. Female butterflies have broader black border than males. The underside of the hindwings is brightly coloured with broad yellow band at the wing base and bright red band edged with red near the wing tips.

Host plant. Mistletoes Dendrophthoe glabrescens and Dendrophthoe pentandra

Looking back through my photographs.
Day 1. Ulysses butterfly, the Papilio ulysses.

The female butterfly is different from the male in that she has crescents of blue in the back, upside sections of her hindwings, where there is only black for males. When the butterfly is perched the intense blue of its wings is hidden by the plainer brown under side of its wings, helping it to blend in with its surroundings. When in flight, the butterfly can be seen hundreds of meters away shimmering as sudden bright blue flashes. Males are strongly attracted to the colour blue.
Host plants.
Pink Euodia, Pink-flowered Doughwood, Melicope elleryana. The preferred, main host plant.
Little Evodia, Corkwood, Melicope rubra. A great smaller alternative (4–6m) to the larger Euodia.Yellow Corkwood, Melicope bonwickii, Preferred plant.
Kerosene Wood / Turpentine Tree, Erythroxylum ellipticum.

Happy 100th birthday 🥰

Just cleaning up the back garden. As we have some bad weather forecast. Pulling out all the aphid infested milkweed and came across these two fat lovelies.
Monarch caterpillars eating the last mouthfuls of the milkweed. Don’t worry I relocated them to a nice huge plant.

I received a message from Beck in Cairns.

Hi I have aristolochia tagala plants in Cairns
(Birdwing butterfly host plant) if anyone wants them.
You can reply here and I'll send the message on if anyone is interested