A Plane In My Garden

It's always lovely to see butterflies visiting our garden.

Here are a couple of recent visitors. The top one is a 'White Banded Plane' butterfly. They get their name by the way they glide around (like a plane).

This next one is a female 'Orchard Swallowtail' butterfly.

Their caterpillars feed on citrus leaves - they are welcome in our orchard (they don't eat much anyway).

One of the largest butterflies to grace Queensland gardens.

Cheerio for now,

I hope you've enjoyed looking at today's post.

Sandi xXx

Flutter-bys

Hello again,
today we have some pretty butterflies to look at.
The first one is a very common butterfly - the 'Monarch' or 'Wanderer'

A 'Meadow Argus' . It is also known as 'Albin's Hampstead Eye in the United Kingdom, where it has occurred only as an accidental import.

And lastly, a 'White line blue' butterfly.
It is always a pleasure to see butterflies visiting my garden.
Cheerio for now,
Sandi x

The Wanderer

 

Don't you love this stripey caterpillar?

I found a bunch of them on a cotton bush growing by the local roadside recently.

The caterpillar will eventually turn into the 'wanderer' or 'monarch' butterfly.

 This is what the cotton bush (food source) looks like. Children often play with the seed pods.

So keep your eyes out, you may just see a wanderer fly past.....

 

Cheerio for now,

Sandi x

Zebra Blue

Today I have found for you a most gorgeous little butterfly - the Zebra Blue. The underside of the wings have exquisitely marked patterns. The top side of the wings are shiny blue-grey.

They are rarely found not far from this shrub (above) - the Plumbago, as its' green caterpillars love to feed on the buds and flowers. This blue plumbago is hanging over our side fence near my veggie garden. It is such a delight to spy a little Zebra Blue flitting around the pretty flowers.
Do you have Zebra's in your garden?

Cheerio,
Sandi x

The Evening Brown

The 'Evening Brown' butterfly is cunningly disguised as a leaf.
Resting during the day on the ground with it's wings folded makes it difficult to detect......until you walk nearby. The startled butterfly will often land not too far from where it was sitting.......making a great game of hide and seek.

You can catch a glimpse of the beautiful outer wing colours above.

My book says,

'The Evening Brown does not visit flowers, but sucks juice from fermenting fruit'.

Mmm......I wonder if some of that juice is alcholic? Perhaps it is having fruit cocktails in the evening....

 

Cheers,
Sandi x

Jezabel

Look what I found yesterday - a 'common jezabel'  (Delias nigrina).

It was happy enough to sit on my hand and be photographed. 

As the name suggests, they are quite a common butterfly and are regular visitors to our garden.

 

Their caterpillars feed on mistletoes.

 

Cheeky!

(Poking it's tongue out!)

Cheers,

Sandi x