Butterflies And Insects Of The Daintree Region

There are many colourful butterflies about the Daintree rainforest - triangles,leafwings, swallow-tails, sword-tails, cruisers, jezabels, blues and others. The sunny edges of rainforest where shrubs are in flower often attract butterflies in numbers, particularly where the introduced lantana invades the perimeter. Here butterflies visit flower after flower, systematically searching for nectar.

Like some of the colourful birds though, bright colours of many butterflies blend with the rainforest. Most butterflies are unobtrusive, flying only in bright sunny weather. The huge and beautiful Ulysses Butterfly however, is obvious, and often seen about the warm lowland rainforests of the Daintree. Brilliant metallic blue wings resemble an intense blue flashing light as the butterfly flies rapidly about open spaces against a background of green foliage. Often symbolised in promotional material in the tourism industry, it is as evocative to these northern rainforests as the Southern Cassowary or the Fan Palm.

You may also be fortunate enough to see the large green, gold and black male Birdwing butterfly about the rainforest edges or clearings. With a slower, more relaxed flight than the Ulysses, it resembles a large leaf aloft on the breeze. The female is sombre in black and white with touches of yellow and red. With a wingspan of about 20 centimetres she is Australia’s largest butterfly.

Extract from "Daintree - Jewel of Tropical North Queensland" by Lloyd Nielsen, reproduced with kind permission.