www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Can anyone help with ID of these 2 butterflies seen in New South Wales?

Hello Jim.

Your first butterfly is (I believe) a female lemon migrant, Catopsilia pomona. The second is (again - I believe!) the saltbush blue, Theclinesthes serpentata.

Guy

I Agree with Guy with those ID's.

Many thanks to you both Jim

What kind of numbers are butterflies about in in that part of Australia, Jim? I have an open invitation to visit but do not have enough spare annual leave to do justice to such a trip right now (although that will change when I retire).

I agree with Guy's IDs.

David - this has not been a good season for butterflies. I live in Sydney; last March it rained virtually the whole month and that seemed to hit the autumn generation badly. This was followed by a long dry spell which meant many larval foodplants have been in short supply, leading to a shortage of butterflies.
I was in Cairns a few weeks ago; their last few wet seasons have not been very wet, so I didn't see all that many butterflies there either, at least not by Wet Tropics standards. Since then it's been raining very heavily, so maybe there'll be a big emergence in the not too distant future.
I'm going up to Darwin in mid-April - hopefully things will be better up there.

http://www.purvision.com/butterflies

Thanks for that, Sooty, and also for the link, which I'll spend some time looking at very soon.

David M wrote:What kind of numbers are butterflies about in in that part of Australia, Jim? I have an open invitation to visit but do not have enough spare annual leave to do justice to such a trip right now (although that will change when I retire).

This is a good ID guide that won't break the bank David, and its small enough to take with you.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Complete-Field ... N85AWS5DK2

Thanks for the link, BB. Looks like a recent tome.

I'm sure I'll get round to it one day, but in the meantime there's far too much going on closer to home!