Wikipedia says…
The meadow argus (Junonia villida) is a butterfly in the family Nymphalidae, commonly found in Australia. It is also known as Albin’s Hampstead eye in the United Kingdom, where it has occurred only as an accidental import.
The wingspan measures 4 centimetres (1.6 in) in males and 4.3 centimetres (1.7) in females
(Nikon D3000, on auto)
Thanks for looking.
🙂
I found this butterfly on top of my car after a night of rain. Unfortunately, it was missing bits and I’m pretty sure it was dead. I put it on top of my wheelie bin for photos.(Nikon D3000)
It is another of our painted lady butterflies – the Vanessa itea – the Australian admiral aka yellow admiral. I can’t recall seeing one before.
Wikipedia says…
The yellow admiral or Australian admiral (Vanessa itea) is a butterfly native to Australia, New Zealand, Lord Howe Island, and Norfolk Islands. The Māori name is kahukowhai, which means “yellow cloak”. The yellow admiral is a member of the family Nymphalidae, the sub-family Nymphalinae as well as the tribe Nymphalini.
The pretty grapevine moth has returned but I’m unable to catch it settled enough for a photo. There is also an orange butterfly with the blue wing eyes that I photographed a year or two ago (I’ll share those photos tomorrow) and I’ve been chasing around a pair of lovely frilly looking white butterflies with black edges on their wings.
Thanks for looking. I’ll try to get around to a few blogs over the coming days, so don’t get too big a shock if you see me!
Have a good day. 🙂
I was taking photos of bees in my red bottlebrush bush when I spotted this butterfly up high in the tree outside our kitchen windows.
I discovered that it is called the Australian Painted Lady. It has an alternative name of Blue-Spotted Painted Lady because of its tiny blue spots on its hind wings. I didn’t get close enough to see those clearly. The male genitalia is different from other painted ladies, so ours is considered a separate species (Vanessa kershawi).
In Spring, the adult butterflies migrate southward from Queensland and New South Wales, sometimes en masse.
I will have to keep an eye open for caterpillars. They love daisies, including capeweed. I haven’t seen many of these butterflies about, though, so I do not like my chances.
So, I wandered off to another part of the garden and I could hardly believe it landed right by me. Just a little too far away. Certainly does not look much with the wings closed. You can see the white ends of his antennae.
All images taken yesterday using the Nikon D3000 SLR, on auto. Cropped, scaled, and sharpened in GIMP.
Thanks for looking. 🙂
Christine R 
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