Subject: Australian Butterfly Resources

From: "Henry M. Brodkin" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 29 Jan 1995 06:31:21 -0800

Someone recently asked about Australian Butterfly resources.  I was
talking to an Aussie at the Lorquin meeting last night who told me that
there is a butterfly garden in Kuranda near Cairns.  There is a book on
Australian Butterflies, but he didn't know the name.  There is also a
book on Birdwings, expensive but beautiful.
Hope this helps.

Hank Brodkin                              "Biological diversity is the
Marina Del Rey, CA                        key to the maintenance of the
[email-masked]                          world as we know it."
33.58'24"N 118.27'39"W                    E. O. Wilson, 1992

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From: Philipp Kirsch <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 30 Jan 1995 02:26:10 -0500

Further to Hank Brodkin's message:

The butterflies of Australia are actually very well documented. The best
reference is Common IFB and Waterhouse DF (1981). Butterflies of Australia.
(Sydney: Angus and Robertson). 682 pages. [It seems to me that there may be a
more recent edition.]

With respect to the birdwings, I quote from' The insects of Australia',
Volume 2, p. 896 [Division of entomology, CSIRO, Australia, Melbourne
University Press, 1991]: " The largest and finest species is the sexually
dimorphic Cape York Birdwing, Triodes (=Ornithoptera) priamus, with green,
black and gold male and much larger, black white and yellow female. There are
4 Australian subspecies. The smaller and duller T. richmondia occurs in
southern Queensland and northern New South Wales."

I have used both of the above books extensively, and highly recommend them. I
have captured (and released) T. richmondia in the Brisbane suburbs, when
feeding on lantana. As far as other birdwings go, I used to watch them while
growing up as a kid in Papua New Guinea.

Philipp Kirsch
email: [email-masked]
IPM Technologies: Suppliers of pheromone lures and traps.