Invertebrate Conservation Issue The Eltham Copper Butterfly Paralucia pyrodiscus lucida Crosby (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae): local versus state conservation strategies in Victoria AA Canzano,1, 3 TR New1 and Alan L Yen2 1Department of Zoology, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria 3086 2Department of Primary Industries, 621 Burwood Highway, Knoxfield, Victoria 3156 3Corresponding author Abstract This paper summarises some aspects of the practical conservation needs of the Eltham Copper Butterfly Paralucia pyrodiscus lucida, a small threatened subspecies of butterfly endemic to Victoria, Australia. The butterfly is located in three disjunct regions, separated by hundreds of kilo- metres across the state as a result of habitat removal and degradation. The three areas of ECB occur- rence each have distinct characteristics affecting the needs and intensity of conservation manage- ment on the various sites given their urban, regional and rural settings. Butterfly populations have been monitored nearly every year since 1988 with the active support of volunteers, ‘Friends of Eltham Copper Butterfly’, local councils and government agencies. This information has contributed to a more holistic management regime for the butterfly, and further research aims to elucidate the more intricate details of the butterfly’s biology, to continue to refine the current monitoring process across the state of Victoria. (The Victorian Naturalist 124 (4), 2007, 236-242) Introduction The Eltham Copper Butterfly Paralucia nests by day, around the base of the food pyrodiscus lucida Crosby (ECB) is a plant. ECB is unusual in that populations Victorian endemic subspecies of the dull have been monitored nearly every year copper. In common with many other since 1988 with the active support and par- Australian Lycaenidae, it has declined in ticipation of community volunteers, such range, and has become one of the best- as the ‘Friends of the Eltham Copper’, and known butterfly taxa in Victoria since a parallel groups associated with reserves in thriving colony was discovered in Eltham, Castlemaine and Kiata. With their help, outer Melbourne, in 1987. Before that, it counts have been made both of caterpillars had been believed by many people to have and adult butterflies each season. become extinct through site loss caused by In this note, we summarise some aspects urban development since it was described of the practical conservation needs of the from Greensborough in 1951. ECB was subspecies, and draw attention to (a) differ- amongst the first invertebrates to be listed ences between the management needs of under the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act ECB in three disjunct regions in which the 1988, and has become a powerful ambas- butterfly occurs and (b) differences sador for insect conservation in the state. It between the various sites in the Eltham is one of few Australian butterflies for area, for which different agencies have pri- which dedicated reserves have been desig- mary management responsibility. Early nated for its conservation. The butterfly’s conservation management plans and status biology, outlined by Braby (1990) and evaluations (Crosby 1987; Vaughan 1988) Braby et al. (1992, 1999), is reasonably have continued to form the basis for more well understood. Endersby (1996) also recent advances, and enabled progress contributed to the biology and behaviour toward more holistic management. The of ECB with detailed field observations of conservation of the ECB is overseen by the each of its life history stages. The senior Eltham Copper Butterfly Working Group, author of this paper is currently completing which comprises representatives of the var- more detailed research on the ECB as part ious management agencies for the different of a higher degree dissertation. Caterpillars ECB sites, entomologists, scientists from feed nocturnally on Bursaria spinosa, and other relevant disciplines, and the relevant are tended by ants of the genus Notoncus. Friends groups. They are harboured in the ant subterranean 236 The Victorian Naturalist Invertebrate Conservation Issue Fig. 1. The Eltham Copper Butterfly locations at Kiata. The Kiata Flora Reserve has two sites, one by the highway (1) and the other in the centre of the reserve (2). There is a small colony at the Salisbury Flora Reserve (3). Distribution and its conservation spring. In contrast, two distinct generations implications occur in the Kiata area, where adults of the The current distribution of the Eltham first generation appear from mid-October, Copper Butterfly is believed to represent and of the second generation, in February. the outcome of considerable range reduc- Phenology at Castlemaine also implies that tion and habitat loss and fragmentation, to only one generation may occur. Different leave three highly disjunct areas where the species of Notoncus host the caterpillars in butterfly now occurs (Figs. 1–3). Within different parts of the range: N. capitatus at each region, the butterfly exhibits charac- Eltham and Castlemaine, and N. ectatom- teristic patterns of seasonal development, moides at Kiata. and within each the distribution is patchy The three areas of ECB occurrence each and far less extensive than that of either have distinct characteristics affecting the the larval food plant or the host ant. needs and intensity of conservation man- Phenology and development differs some- agement on the various sites. what in the different regions, reflecting cli- (a) Kiata and Salisbury, in north-western matic differences, and leading to different Victoria, harbour populations on sever- monitoring needs in each area. At Eltham, al rural sites with patchy Bursaria, a clear univoltine pattern occurs, but with within a largely pastoral area. Three late emergences of adults in some years small colonies of the butterfly are giving the appearance of a second genera- known on large flora reserves (Fig. 1). tion. Adults are present from November to (b) Castlemaine. Two peri-urban sites sup- March, occasionally later. Eggs are laid port butterfly colonies, one within the from November, and young caterpillars Botanic Gardens, and others, more eclose in December, foraging little during recently discovered, in Kalimna Park. the winter months but resuming regular These sites represent an urban/rural activity as the weather warms in early transition, and are surrounded by a mix- Vol. 124 (4) 2007 237 Invertebrate Conservation Issue Fig. 2. The Eltham Copper Butterfly sites at Castlemaine are located in the Botanic Gardens and in Kalimna Park (3 and 4). The population at the Botanic Gardens has moved from 1 to 2 since monitoring began. ture of residential development, natural within reserves with wider conservation bushland and grazing lands with ongo- responsibility. The sites thereby span the ing subdivision for urban development range from large rural sites to small urban (Fig. 2). ones. These are associated with different (c) Eltham/Greensborough, in outer north threats and different opportunities for the eastern Melbourne, where the butterfly butterfly to disperse and track resources. occurs on several small (1-3 ha) urban Thus the larger sites afford opportunity for remnant patches, surrounded and iso- population movement impossible on the lated by housing. Six major colonies small Eltham sites. are known, some of them small (Fig. Systematic annual larval and adult counts 3). The largest population, at the have been made at all three locations since Western Colony, comprises fewer than 1993.These have been conducted by pro- 800-1000 individuals. fessional entomologists (Van Praagh 1996; All sites are nominally protected, some Canzano, unpubl. data), Department of as dedicated reserves, and some by being Susutainability and Environment, Parks 238 The Victorian Naturalist Invertebrate Conservation Issue Victoria, and the Friends groups (Friends which acts as a clearing house and coordi- of the Eltham Copper Butterfly and nator of information accruing. Friends of Kalimna Park). These annual Management needs, and the capacity to counts have provided significant informa- undertake effective management, differ tion on distribution and relative abun- substantially across the different areas. At dances of ECB, but the nature, intensity Kiata/Salisbury and Castlemaine the and frequency of counts required to pro- potential habitat and sites are sufficiently vide reliable quantitative data on ECB in extensive to facilitate a mosaic of condi- these reserves remains uncertain. The tions within the area, and for the butterfly results are influenced by weather condi- populations to track these as they change, tions and differences in individual observer so that the butterfly presence and distribu- acuity. tion may differ from year to year, or across a longer time scale. Thus, the major colony Progress toward effective conservation in the Castlemaine Botanic Gardens has As for other butterflies in Victoria, surveys moved from its stronghold in the early continue to yield new information, both of 1990s to another site some hundreds of detail and scale, with recent discoveries of metres away. Such microscale population ‘new’ colonies in Kalimna Park of consid- movements are by no means unusual in erable interest. Only through community butterflies as conditions change, with some awareness can such events be effectively species surviving continuously in a suite of documented and publicised. ECB conser- habitat patches, only some of which are vation is broadly overseen by a statewide occupied at any time, on a site and