Butterfly Colours – what do they like?
Butterfly colours … no, we’re not talking about what our butterflies look like, but instead, what they see! We say it often, but butterflies love pink, red and white … but do you know why? Butterflies have immobile, compound eyes that can see a vast array of color. Unfortunately for them, they are a little bit […]
Friday Fun Fact – Food Plants for Caterpillars
As you may know, the Australian Butterfly Sanctuary grows the food plants for caterpillars that call our sanctuary home. We have started to propagate more of these plants to increase our supplies. We find that we have a very good success rate with our growing, so sometimes we find that there are more plants than we […]
Friday Fun Fact – London Calling
We had a documentary film crew from England visit us at the sanctuary last week. Phil and Sky were wonderful to work with. They were here to film the life cycle of some of our butterflies. The stars of the show have been Cairns Birdwings, Cruisers and Red Lacewings. Some of the footage that was filmed […]
Friday Fun Fact – Blue Banded Eggfly
In the early 2000’s we had the Blue Banded Eggfly here at the Butterfly Sanctuary, but due to the lack of host plants, as well as the fact that they are seasonal, we stopped breeding them. We have increased the plots of Asytasia now, and are slowly re introducing the Blue Banded Eggflies back into the […]
What are butterfly wings made of?
A butterfly has four wings – two on each side. They are broken into two forewings and two hindwings. The wings are attached to the second and third thoracic segments (the meso- and meta-thorax). When a butterfly is in flight, the wings move up and down in a figure-eight pattern. Butterfly wings are made up […]
The Cairns Birdwing Butterfly
The Cairns Birdwing butterfly is the largest of all Australian butterflies and found along northeastern Australia from Mackay to Cooktown. Its scientific name is Ornithoptera euphorion The male birdwing is green, gold and black and is very colourful, compared to the female which is black and white, with some yellow. The female is bigger than the […]
How to attract butterflies to your garden
Start by making your garden as pesticide-free as possible. Certain pesticides can kill butterflies, so be careful what you use in your garden. You also need to find the plants that are native to your area, and native to the butterflies and their caterpillars. For example, the Lacewing Vine will attract the Orange Cruiser, Red […]
The Ulysses Butterfly
The Ulysses butterfly is one of Tropical North Queensland’s most distinctive and unique butterfly species. Their scientific name is papilio ulysses A lot of our visitors come to our sanctuary purely to see the iridescent blue butterfly in flight, and to try and snap a photo. They are considered to be one of the most […]
New Bridge & Gazebo
What could be more romantic than taking your wedding vows surrounded by butterflies! The Australian Butterfly Sanctuary has recently opened its Butterfly Lovers Bridge and a gazebo where couples can have their wedding ceremony. Make sure you visit and read our series of Butterfly legends, myths and magical folklore which pay tribute to these unique creatures.