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BACKYARD BIODIVERSITY OUR NATURE: BUTTERFLIES 1 Backyard Biodiversity ECOSYSTEMS DIVERSITY ECOSYSTEMS The Gold Coast is one of Essential for a healthy planet the most biodiverse cities in Australia. Our native plants and wildlife are essential to our environmental, social and economic health and wellbeing. Backyards are an important part of the Gold Coast’s natural landscape with more than half of the SPECIES DIVERSITY city’s native vegetation on private properties. Essential for healthy ecosystems If you have a backyard, courtyard or a balcony you have the opportunity to support our native plants and animals by providing habitat for our diverse native wildlife. GENETIC DIVERSITY Essential for healthy species 1 Threatened species Biodiversity is reduced when species become extinct. Plant and animal While the categories and specific definitions used differs between species which are at risk of extinction are known as threatened species. State and Federal legislation, in both cases the status indicates whether a species still exists and how likely it is to become extinct. Threatened species can be identified by their conservation status which is specified under both Federal [Environment Protection and Biodiversity Gold Coast Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act)] and State [Nature Conservation Act 1992 (NC Act)] legislation. On the Gold Coast, species which are locally significant are known as City-wide significant (CWS) species. These species CWS A range of factors is used to assess a species’ conservation are important because they may be threatened, restricted to status including: the Gold Coast, or at the edge of their geographic range. • the number of individuals remaining You and your backyard can contribute to supporting threatened and • the overall increase or decrease in the population over time CWS species by creating and restoring habitat in your backyard. • breeding success rates and known threats. Throughout this booklet, Threatened, Near threatened and CWS species are identified using the symbols shown below. They are accurate at the time of printing. Threatened species MOST LIKELY TO LEAST LIKELY TO EXTINCT BECOME EXTINCT BECOME EXTINCT EPBC Act Ex Wx CE E V CD Extinct Extinct in Critically Endangered Vulnerable Conservation the wild endangered dependant NC Act PE E V NT LC Presumed extinct Endangered Vulnerable Near Least in the wild threatened concern BACKYARD BIODIVERSITY: Our Nature – Butterflies 3 OUR NATURE: BUTTERFLIES Everyone loves butterflies. Often brilliantly patterned and Australia is The Gold Coast is, coloured, they enhance our gardens, parks and bush – home to almost or has been, appearing like living flowers as they flit from plant to plant home to as many as searching for nectar. Some are familiar to everyone: the 400 170 robust orange and black Wanderer is active all year; the different species species of butterflies black and white Crow butterfly thrives on exotic plantings of butterflies of oleander; the tiny blues that flitter around every lawn; and the few species that eat things we’d rather they didn’t. Around the world, populations of many species have declined or even disappeared under the frantic pressure of urban development. Only a very few species, such as the Common Crow and Cycad Blue, have benefitted from The first meal Butterflies are closely linked to the human modifications of the environment and are now of a caterpillar is frequently its own relatively common in urban areas. HOST PLANTS EGGSHELL that their caterpillars eat. Take action in your backyard • Protect and restore natural bushland. • Grow butterfly host plants. Some species • Grow nectar plants. of butterfly absorb Some species of butterfly • Maintain or create wet areas for ‘mud puddling’. POISONOUS • Avoid using pesticides. DEPEND ON ANTS chemicals from which look the plants on which after their caterpillars. their caterpillars feed. BACKYARD BIODIVERSITY: Our Nature – Butterflies 5 Did you know? About Butterflies Lepidoptera is from the Greek words ‘lepidos’ meaning scale Butterflies and moths belong to the huge group of insects collectively and ‘pteron’ meaning wing. known as the Lepidoptera – that is insects that, as adults, have wings covered in overlapping scales. It is these scales that carry the bright and not so bright colours and patterns by which most of the 180,000 described species worldwide are distinguished. Globally, butterflies range in size from just a few millimetres (our Tiny Grass Blue can lay claim to being among the very smallest with a wingspan of as little as 10mm) to the giant birdwings of New Guinea (the female Queen Alexandra Birdwing has a wingspan of up to 300mm). Our largest, locally occurring butterfly is the Richmond Birdwing, the females of which have a wingspan up to 120mm. Many adult butterflies have different wing patterns between the sexes which, in the past, often led to them being identified as separate species. Examples include the Richmond Birdwing, the Orchard Swallowtail and the Common Eggfly. A few species have different colour forms in different seasons. Almost always, the colours and patterns of a butterfly’s upper wings contrast with those on the underside. The colours of the upper wings are involved in mate recognition and signalling, whereas the underside colouration is often a matter of blending into the background when at rest. For several groups of butterflies, the patterns on the underside are the most useful feature for identifying the species. The butterflies we see flying are the endpoint of a complex life-cycle that can span many months. Throughout this life cycle, the lives of butterflies are inextricably linked with plants: indeed, it is generally supposed that the butterflies and flowering plants evolved together, developments in one group impacting on the other, and vice-versa. Evening Brown (Melanitis leda) BACKYARD BIODIVERSITY: Our Nature – Butterflies 7 The life cycle Life cycle - White Nymph (Mynes geoffroyi) We are most familiar with adult butterflies. Adult butterflies are the Unlike many species of butterfly, the caterpillars and chrysalises of White fourth and final of the life stages through which each and every Nymphs are often found in groups. species of butterfly must pass. Stage 1 – egg Their lives begin as eggs deposited on plants by female adult butterflies after they have mated. These eggs are generally small, globular or ribbed and may be laid singly or in clusters. 1 Stage 2 – caterpillar (larva) From the eggs emerge caterpillars (larvae) which generally are the longest stage of the insect’s life. With just a very few exceptions 2 these caterpillars eat the leaves of plants. Some species, like the Richmond Birdwing (Ornithoptera richmondia), have a highly 1 Female butterfly specialised diet and only one or two species of host plants will laying eggs do. For others, like the Common Eggfly (Hypolimnas bolina) or 2 Caterpillars 3 Chrysalises Blue Triangle (Graphium sarpedon), a wide range of plant species 4 Adult butterfly are acceptable to the caterpillar – although these plants are often recently emerged from chrysalis closely related. The caterpillars grow dramatically during their lives, casting off their skins (moulting) to allow them to grow at least four times. With the last of these moults, the caterpillar shortens and 4 thickens before transforming into the third life stage, the chrysalis. 3 BACKYARD BIODIVERSITY: Our Nature – Butterflies 9 Stage 3 – Chrysalis (pupa) Ecological Role The chrysalis or pupa is perhaps the most remarkable of the four Butterflies, in all stages of their life cycle, play important roles in our stages. Butterflies and moths (like beetles, flies and bees) undergo ecosystems. Adult butterflies pollinate flowers. Their eggs and caterpillars a process known as complete metamorphosis. During the pupal are a vital part of ecosystem food chains, providing food resources for a stage, most of the tissues and cells of the larva break up and are wide range of predators and parasites including birds, dragonflies, wasps re-assembled into the dramatically different adult shape. It is within and spiders. the pupa that the butterfly’s wings develop. Caterpillars are particularly important. They are relentless eating Stage 4 – Butterfly machines, transforming the tissues of their host plants into body mass. After a few weeks or months, the chrysalis case splits and the adult Without plant eaters like caterpillars, the energy of the sun captured by butterfly emerges, its wings expanding, drying and hardening in plants would not be released to the wider world. Butterflies and moths the air. Adult butterflies need three things in life: energy resources are one of the principal groups of animals which make this release to fuel their flight – principally nectar from plants but sometimes happen and as a result they are a driver of ecosystems. This crucial role rotting fruit or even animal dung; they need water to prevent them is often overlooked when we try to prevent our plants at home from being desiccating (drying out) from the sun’s rays; and they need a mate. eaten – without that release of energy by caterpillars, our environment and its biodiversity is reduced. Most species mate only once and the male products are stored within the female ready to fertilise each egg when it is mature and Because butterflies are sensitive to changes in our climate and ready to be laid. There are a fascinating range of mechanisms by respond quickly to environmental stress, they are good indicators of an which males and females find each other, evaluate the ‘quality’ of ecosystem’s wellbeing. An abundance of butterflies usually indicates a the potential mate, and where males try to prevent others from healthier ecosystem. mating with the same female. It is the female butterflies who seek out appropriate host plants and deposit mature eggs on or close to these plants. SO THE LIFE CYCLE BEGINS AGAIN. Black Jezebel (Delias nigrina) caterpillars feeding on mistletoe species BACKYARD BIODIVERSITY: Our Nature – Butterflies 11 Butterflies and Ants Ants are usually considered to be very general predators mopping up anything in their path, alive or dead.

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