Butterfly Adventures in Brisbane Information and Inspiration for Environmental Educators Kindergarten to Primary School Age Brisbane Catchments Network gratefully acknowledges the financial support received through funding under the Lord Mayor's Community Sustainability and Environmental Grants Program. Butterfly Adventures in Brisbane Information and Inspiration for Environmental Educators Kindergarten to Primary Schools This booklet was produced as part of the in- Content augural Brisbane’s Big Butterfly Count 2020/2021, an initiative of Brisbane Catch- Butterflies in Brisbane 1 ments Network (BCN) in cooperation with Why are butterflies important? 2 its member groups. Butterfly beauty 3 The butterfly project was chosen as these in- Butterfly Life Cycle 4 sects are representative for many other fauna What about moths? 6 species and have the potential to gauge the Long distance travellers 8 health status of our environment. They react to changes in their surrounds such as frag- Immigrants to Australia 9 mentation of habitat, loss of host plants, pro- Butterflies are picky eaters 10 longed lack of rain, and changing tempera- A threatened species. 11 tures. The Richmong Birdwing butterfly BCN aims to create awareness of the beauty Free childcare for butterflies 12 and importance of Brisbane’s rich natural I can be a butterfly 13 environment and to engage the community Dreamtime Story. 16 in its protection. The birth of the butterflies Butterflies are loved by young and old. Their Making butterflies. 19 extraordinary life cycle intrigues, their col- Observing butterflies 21 ours and lightness bring joy. A garden, park Attracting butterflies 22 or schoolyard will have butterflies, even a small flower box on the balcony of a city Butterfly bodies are cool! 24 unit will likely be visited by them. Insecticides and hungry caterpillars 25 Environmental education can never start ear- Hairy line-blue (Erychsiton lineatus) ly enough. If encouraged, children are in- quisitive. They value the environment more when they understand how it works. This booklet endeavours to offer information and some age appropriate activities for vari- ous learning stages. They range from fun filled role play for young children to transect investigations for the older, and offer indoor and outdoor engagement including hands SA on support of butterflies through planting. Butterfly Adventures in Brisbane. Kindergarten to Primary School ISBN 978-0-6452181-0-7 © Brisbane Catchments Network Inc 2021 Author: Jutta Godwin Images: BE—Benjamint444—GFDL 1.2; DK—Dave Kennard—CC BY-SA 3.0; DM—Deborah Metters; JG—Jutta Godwin; MB—Milind Bhakare, CC BY-SA 4.0; PC—Peter Chew, Brisbane Insects; RM—Robert (Bob) Miller; SA—Sylvia Alexander; SH—Shaddack, CC BY-SA 3.0; SU— Subhendukhan, CC BY-SA 4.0 Cover: Front and back page including inside cover pages: Jutta Godwin Production: Brisbane Catchments Network Inc, 94 Radford Rd (PO Box 5878), Manly West, Qld 4179 [email protected]—[email protected] www.brisbanecatchments.org.au—www.facebook.com/brisbanecatchments.org.au www.facebook.com/BrisbanesBigButterflyCount Butterflies in Brisbane Brisbane is the most biodiverse capital city Riparian areas are too often reduced to a of Australia. As Brisbanites we are proud of minimum. In addition to immense rehabil- our local natural wealth. It creates much of itation efforts by volunteers working with our wonderful city’s character and is inval- support of BCC’s Community Conserva- uable for our wellbeing. It contributes tion Partnerships Program, all Brisbanites greatly to how we live our social life, and it can help to bring native larval host plants allows Brisbane to prosper. back to all these areas. To realise that but- While much of our natural landscape exists terflies are important pollinators and part in public spaces like parks and reserves, ri- of the food chain may support those parian areas, wetlands, in mangroves lining efforts. the Brisbane River or our city’s coastline, a significant part of Brisbane’s biodiversity can be found on private properties. Even a small backyard or a balcony can contrib- ute, especially if native plants are consid- ered. All local catchment and bushcare groups work to create and enhance habitat, to build connectivity to allow for wildlife movement, and to conserve our biodiversi- ty. They engage Brisbane’s community and endeavour to make understood the value of native vegetation and how precious our natural assets are. Monitoring native spe- SA cies is part of rehabilitation activities and beneficial to overall efforts. Around 160 different butterfly species have been recorded in the Brisbane area. They have the potential to be indicators of environmental health, not least thanks to their close relationship with plants. In our fast growing city butterflies’ habitat can become sparse and fragmented as once large properties make way to housing de- SA velopments, usually leaving small plots Plumbago Blue and Zebra Blue (Leptotes plinius); with barely any valuable native plants. Bottom: Tailed Emperor (Charaxes sempronius) 1 Why are butterflies important? An abundance of butterfly numbers and species signals that ecosystems are healthy. For many plants insects are important pol- linators. In their pursuit of sugar-rich nec- tar butterflies visit flower after flower. While not feeding on pollen, they carry it on their bodies, ensuring the reproduction of plants and their genetic health. While bees may be considered the more efficient pollinators, butterflies achieve significant results by visiting more flowers. PC Flower Spider (Thomisus spectabilis) with its catch, a Butterflies are a vital part of the food skipper butterfly chain. Their caterpillars are gourmet food for a variety of predators. Juicy larvae are a also based on their sensitivity and their favourite of birds. Most insectivorous birds prompt response to habitat changes as need caterpillars to sustain themselves, es- well as to climatic variations. pecially breeding and feeding their off- Because of their role as bioindicators, butter- spring. Spiders, wasps and others have flies are well placed to represent other fauna them on their menu too. Flower spiders species. They can indicate changes in envi- love to camouflage and wait for nectar ronmental health. drinking adult butterflies like the skipper butterfly above right. A jumping frog may We all want our butterflies to thrive. To un- catch them, and a dragonfly is likely to at- derstand how Brisbane’s species are faring, tack if the opportunity arises. Moths, but- let’s count them and plant for them. terflies’ close nocturnal relatives, are a much sought after food source for echolo- cating bats. Looking after lepidoptera provides benefits for the wider natural world. A Wanderer or Monarch(Danaus petilia) decrease in butterfly and moth numbers will interfere with the food chain and lead to a de- cline in the number of other species. Butterflies’ role as important environmental indicators is JG 2 Butterfly beauty Butterflies and their close relatives moths are insects belonging to the order Lepi- doptera. This name is derived from Greek and means scaly winged. JG JG The different looks of one species. Male (left) and female Common Eggfly (Hypolimnas bolina). JG JG SH SA SA Tiny scales on a butterfly wing, magnified approxi- mately 200 times The adult butterfly has four wings which are covered in thousands of overlapping SA MB colourful scales, visible under a micro- Scales create different patterns on upper and under- side of species. Top row: Chequered Swallowtail scope. These scales and their colours on (Papilio demoleus). Middle row: Bordered Rustic the upper as well as underside of the wings (Cupha prosope). Bottom row: Indigo Flash (Rapala varuna). create patterns that allow us to identify but- terfly species. The underside tends to blend into the back- SA ground, while the upper side often serves to attract a mating partner. Wing patterns may also differ between sex- es or according to season. SA Depending on the time of the year the Evening Brown appears in dry (on left) and wet season wing patterns, all created by scales. 3 The Butterfly Life Cycle Egg—Larvae—Chrysalis—Adult Butterfly The metamorphosis of the Orchard Swallowtail (Papilio aegeus) JG Insects develop in two different ways to they undergo four different stages and reach their adult form. Some, like stick completely change their appearance every insects and grasshoppers, undergo three time. This transformation is called meta- stages during their life cycle. Nymphs morphosis. hatching from the eggs already resemble After mating the female butterfly deposits the adult version. As they grow, the ‘only’ her eggs on the larval host plant. The Or- thing they do to become an adult is to shed chard swallowtail places single eggs on their exoskeleton and emerge with a new leaves, others like the Caper white lay them skin, a process that is repeated until they in clusters. Some butterflies choose the un- have reached adulthood. Others like drag- derside of leaves, others like the Orchard onflies and damselflies spend their larval swallowtail deposit her eggs on the upper stage under water only to emerge when surface. Each egg is ca. 0.5mm in diameter. ready to shed their skin for the last time and take on their adult shape. From each egg a tiny caterpillar (larva) emerges. The one of the Orchard Swallow- The life cycle of butterflies and moths is tail looks like a brown-white bird dropping different. Just like bees, flies and beetles 4 at first, which may well be excellent camou- At the end of the fifth instar stage, when fully flage. The caterpillar uses the eggshell as its grown, the caterpillar stops feeding. It at- first food source. The chewing mouth parts taches itself to a branch or branchlet of the (mandibles) of the larva are subsequently larval host plant, sometimes also to the un- used to feed on leaves of the larval host derside of a leaf via a stem-like appendage, plant.