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| Australian Rustic (Cupha prosope prosope) |
| Article by Bob Miller, September 2001 | |
|  | | Australian Rustic (Cupha prosope prosope) |
I think one of the most amazing sights I have seen since studying butterflies, would have been the one I was fortunate enough to have observed back in February this year.
I went to one of the revegetation sites I have been involved in, to assess the weed growth, when I noticed movement around one of the three Flintwood (Scolopia braunii) saplings which we had previously introduced into the park.
Never having seen the Australian Rustic in this park before, we once again proved that by planting the right plants in the right places, the wildlife associated with those plants, in this case butterflies, will soon follow.
The amazing thing about this butterfly was not that it appeared in the park, but the way in which the female deposited her eggs.
I crept up as close as I could without disturbing the butterfly so I could see if she actually oviposited (laid an egg). Every time she put her abdomen under a leaf - the normal place butterflies deposit eggs - I moved in for a closer look, but no eggs!
I must have watched her for ten minutes as she walked from one side of the plant to the other, touching her abdomen on the leaves and branches as she went. She would walk along the branch upside down and then back up the right way again, dragging her abdomen at differing intervals. When she flew to the other side of the plant, I took the advantage and searched very thoroughly where she had been earlier, but to no avail. I couldn't find any eggs. I moved slowly around the tree to once again observe her strange movements. This time I wasn't going to take my eyes off her.
Then it happened. A single, small, greenish-coloured egg was glistening in the sunshine on the underside of the leaf. I took note of where it was and continued to observe the adult as she danced around the plant. Then I saw it again - another egg, an exact replica of the first, but not on the underside of a leaf, as with the first. This time it was in a spider's web!
I moved back a bit to take in the whole plant, and there they were......eight, nine, ten, separate eggs and all in spiders' webs. It turned that what she was doing was walking along the branches and leaves until she found a spider's web. She would then swing her abdomen to very quickly touch the web, sticking an egg in it. It was happening so fast, I was actually missing it!
How safe would these eggs be? I am sure if I was a predatory insect, I wouldn't go near the eggs. But what about the caterpillars that emerged from the eggs? Surely the spiders would eat them.
No, not at all. As soon as they ate their way free of their eggs, they attached a lifeline to the spiders' webs and. like a group of abseilers, they lowered themselves slowly down until they found a leaf or branch of the food plant.
How do they know what to eat? There is every possibility they could have abseiled onto the wrong plant.
After talking it over with a few more " butterfly observers" we deduced that maybe the dance she was performing on the plant with the dragging of the abdomen, was actually her way of putting the scent of the food plant onto the eggs. The larvae, on emerging, would then eat their egg shells, thus getting the taste of the food plant imprinted in their sensory organs.
I took a couple of the eggs home and placed them on a Flintwood I have in an 8 inch pot - I keep a variety of larval food plants in pots so that I can observe life cycles of butterflies in the relatively "predator free" environment of my shade house.
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The larvae are a greenish colour and seem to be quite hairy. These hairs are in fact, non-irritating, almost black spines. The pupae looked like they could be used for Christmas tree decorations. They are green with 10 slender spines of various sizes along the body. These are bent on the ends and seem to be set in silver on the pupa. The spines are brown with black areas at both ends.
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The adult butterfly is first noticed as being a fairly small, orange one, which seems to prefer slightly shady areas. The upper wings are dark brown on the outer edges and then there is a band of orange and then finally a dark caramel colour is closest to the body. The underside of the butterfly is an overall caramel colour. The hind wing has several black spots enclosed in a scallop pattern which possesses a purplish sheen. The forewing has one prominent black spot and approximately four small black spots towards the leading edge. The overall size of this butterfly was only 5 cm from wingtip to wingtip.
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There are 3 food plants listed for the larvae of the Australian Rustic. These are Flacourtia jangomas, Scolopia braunii and Xylosma ovatum .
My preference, as mentioned previously, is for Scolopia braunii and this is available at times from the Barung Landcare Nursery, Maleny, Queensland.
Further information on this subject can be had by reading "Butterflies of Australia " by Common & Waterhouse 1981 and "Butterflies of Australia" by Michael Braby 2000.
Article written by Bob Miller which appeared in Newsletter Issue Number 22 September 2001
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