Varirata NP – May 2015

Araminta and I made a trip to Varirata NP in May 2015. We saw some great birds – including another sighting of the Forest Bittern.

Black-capped Lory Lorius lory erythrothorax

Blue-winged Kookaburra Dacelo leachii

Hooded Pitohui Pitohui dichrous

Forest Bittern Zonerodius heliosylus

Spangled Drongo Dicrurus bracteatus carbonarius

 An unidentified Katydid. It was huge – 15+cm in length.

A large unidentified grasshopper.

An unidentified tree with the most amazing purple colouration to its new growth.

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Butterflies in Varirata NP

A fortnight ago I took some friends to Varirata National Park. There were six of us and most were not really keen birders so its not surprising that we saw nothing new. I didn’t get any photos of birds but I did get a good picture of a new butterfly species: Lamprolenis nitida. It has no common name but the latin species name means “bright” or “shining” and refers to the metallic blue/green sheen present on the upperside of the wings – particularly in the male. Michael Parson’s Butterflies of New Guinea refers to this species as “rare, generally, but [it] may be occasional to common locally.” The larvae feed on Bambusa sp. (Bamboo). I did not have my Macro lens with me but used my Canon 1100-400mm and I think the shot worked well.

Way back in December I took my daughter up to Varirata. Again this was not a serious birding etc trip & I didn’t even take my Canon with me. I did see a nice specimen of the Red Lacewing Cethosia cydippe damasippe and took a few pics with my phone – so please excuse the lack of quality!

 

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Cairns Holiday #3

Australasian Pipit Anthus novaeseelandiae – near Cattana Wetlands.

Forest Kingfisher – Todiramphus macleayii near Cattana Wetlands.

Black-necked Stork Epihippiorhynchus asiaticus at Cattana Wetlands. This is a male. The female has a bright yellow eye.

Comb-crested Jacana – Irediparra gallinacea at Cattana Wetlands.

Male Yellow-bellied Sunbird Nectarinia jugularis at Cattana Wetlands.

Possibly the most spectacular sighting at Cattana wetlands was not a bird but a large Esturine Crocodile Crocodylus porosus.

The Cairns Botanical Gardens is a wonderful location for birding and I enjoyed several outings there.

Bush Stone-curlews Burhinus grallarius. The bird immediately above is nesting.

Great Egret Ardea alba.

Welcome Swallow Hirundo neoxena.

Male Leaden Flycatcher Myiagra rubecula on Redden Island.

Yellow-spotted Honeyeater Meliphaga notata in mangrove forest on Redden island.

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Cairns Holiday 2013 #2

As well as enjoying the birds, I managed to find a few butterflies – despite it being winter & the fact that the weather was not very cooperative.

A sunny morning at Cattana Wetlands near Yorkey’s Knob where we were staying produced the following:

The Common Oakblue Arhopala micale

Yellow Palm Dart Cephrenes trichopepla

Wide-brand Grass-dart Suniana sunias

Common Grass Blue Zizina labradus

Australian Rustic Cupha prosope

A walk along the Jack Barnes Bicentennial Mangrove Boardwalk produced nice views of a female Common Tit Hypolycaena phorbas

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More PAU Birds

Just a few more pics from grounds of Pacific Adventist University.

This is a Little Egret Egretta garzetta back in November. This is the least common of the egrets found at PAU. This bird is in non-breeding plumage.

This is a Little Egret Egretta garzetta in breeding plumage found on campus this morning – note the twin head plumes and the neck plumes.

Probably our commonest raptor is the Whistling Kite Haliastur indus.

Every year we have migrant birds visiting. In addition to the Pacific Golden Plover Pluvialis fulva present recently, we also had at least two snipe.

Snipe are notoriously difficult to identify and there are two almost identical possibilities: Swinhoe’s Snipe Gallinago megala and Latham’s Snipe Gallinago hardwickii. There is also a third species Pin-tailed Snipe Gallinago stenura that may be a scarce but regular visitor. Latham’s Snipe is thought to be a passage migrant – staying only briefly before flying on to its wintering grounds in Australia. This bird – which was present for several weeks is therefore most likely to be Swinhoe’s Snipe.

The Pied Heron Egretta picata are among my favourite PAU birds – and certainly my favourite heron. This morning at 7am there was a very large flock feeding amongst the waterlilies on one of the PAU lakes:

 

This subadult (note the paler head) has caught breakfast.

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Elephant Foot Yam

Recently while exploring the farm area of Pacific Adventist University I found one of the strangest plants I’ve ever seen: an Elephant Foot Yam Amorphophallus paeoniifolius (the scientific name means “paeony-leafed shapeless penis”!). The plant belongs to the Aroid family, Araceae. The family is characterised by its inflorescence, consisting of a fleshy spike of small flowers (spadix) usually subtended by a large bract (spathe). The plant produces a single inflorescence followed by a solitary leaf. The plant is deciduous, dying back to a large underground corm, weighing up to 8kg, after the growing season. The inflorescence comprises a large spadix crowned with a bulbous purple knob, encircled by a fleshy purple and green-blotched spathe up to 50cm wide. On successful pollination of the female flowers the spadix can extend to 2m tall. The fresh inflorescence emits an odor reminiscent of rotting flesh to attract pollinating carrion flies and beetles. The solitary leaf resembles a small tree. The leaf blade is much divided into hundreds of leaflets and can reach over 1m wide. This blade sits atop a thick fleshy stem up to 13cm diameter and 2m tall. The pustular surface of the stem is attractively blotched with paler shades of green. Amorphophallus paeoniifolius occurs through the tropics, from India to New Guinea and Australia. The species was previously called Amorphophallus campanulatus. The plant is grown commercially for its tuber in some parts of the world. I had no idea that these plants were present in PNG – or Australia.

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Macleay’s Swallowtail Moth – Lyssa macleayi

Recently I was alerted to the presence of a specimen of a giant Uraniid Swallowtail Moth (thanks Graeme). This was the second specimen I had seen here in Papua New Guinea but it was the first time I was able to get my camera and take some pictures. It is most likely Macleay’s Swallowtail Moth Lyssa macleayi macleayi based on distribution. It is a large (12+ cm wingspan) nocturnal species – though it can be sometimes found in the daytime; and it habitually perches upside down (see the second picture below). The species was named in 1856 after one of the Macleay family, either Alexander Macleay 1767-1848, William Sharp Macleay 1792-1865, or William John Macleay 1820-1891. Their natural history collection formed the basis of the Macleay Museum at the University of Sydney. There is a page with information on the Macleay family here.

Perched in its characteristic head-down resting pose.

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Some Long-distance Visitors

Currently there are some long-distance visitors on the campus of Pacific Adventist University: three Plovers (Pluvialis sp.). There are three possibilities for the ID of these birds: Pacific Golden Plover Pluvialis fulva, American Golden Plover Pluvialis dominica, and Grey/Black-bellied Plover Pluvialis squatarola. The Pacific and American Golden Plovers are particularly similar – having only been split into separate species in 1986. I thought that the birds were Pacific Golden Plover Pluvialis fulva and just to be sure had the ID confirmed by some friends and by some helpful birders on the Birding-Aus mailing list.

Pacific Golden Plover Pluvialis fulva is a migratory wader that breeds in the Arctic tundra from northern Asia into western Alaska. Most winter in south Asia and Australasia. A few winter in California and Hawaii and it is a rare vagrant to western Europe. This bird was present with two others along with a group of Masked Lapwings Vanellus miles miles on a playing field on the campus of Pacific Adventist University near Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. This was my 82nd positively identified PNG bird.

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Some Butterflies

First and only specimen of Elymnias cybele thryallis that I have seen so far.

This has to be a Hypochrysops sp. – but I can’t figure out which one. I saw multiple specimens and collected one – though I haven’t spread it yet. It doesn’t look like anything in my PNG butterfly bible – Michael Parson’s The Butterflies of Papua New Guinea. There is a photo of what has to be the same species here, though again, there is no identification to species.

EDIT: Thanks to a comment from Aaron, I know that the above species is not a butterfly but rather a moth in the Callidulidae family! This explains why I couldn’t ID it. There is a close enough appearance with Hypochrysops that I wonder if some sort of mimicry is occurring.

Dingy Bush Brown Mycalesis perseus.

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Taenaris myops

Taenaris myops is a large colourful Nymphalid butterfly found throughout Papua New Guinea and recently described (2010) from the Australian territory of Dauan Island in the Torres Strait. Michael Parsons in Butterflies of Papua New Guinea:their systematics and biology, lists as “rare generally, but…occasional to common locally” (p537). I found some  third instar larvae which I collected and followed through the life cycle. the life cycle has been described before but it was still an interesting exercise. The larvae are gregarious and the group I collected numbered 15. They feed on various palm trees and have also been recorded from banana plants. This particular group was feeding on an as-yet-unidentified palm in remnant scrub on the Pacific Adventist University campus on the 28th of June, 2012. These specimens are thought to be of the kirschi subspecies – one of four subspecies in Papua New Guinea.

Third instar Taenaris myops kirschi larvae on palm leaf.

Detail of third instar Taenaris myops kirschi larvae.

Further detail of fourth instar Taenaris myops kirschi larvae.

Fifth (final) instar Taenaris myops kirschi larvae.

Close-up of the head of a fifth (final) instar Taenaris myops kirschi larva. I only kept five of the final instars to pupate as I was going away and all five successfully did so.

Pupa of Taenaris myops kirschi about to eclose. (The larvae pupated while I was away and did so in fairly inconvenient places – this one was under my desk!)

Upperside of Taenaris myops kirschi adult.

Underside of Taenaris myops kirschi adult.

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