Macleay's Swallowtail at Cotter River, ACT
Identification history
| Graphium macleayanum | 15 Dec 2017 | SuziBond | ||
| Graphium macleayanum | 12 Dec 2017 | JudithRoach | ||
| Unidentified | 7 Dec 2017 | JudithRoach |
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User's notes
I hope I've put it properly on the map. It was on the Mount Aggie track. Up along the walking track, away from the carpark, where it was higher. I think these might be Macleay's Swallowtails. They were a bit smaller I thought than the ones I see in East Gippsland. Their behaviour which I hadn't seen before also made photographing and counting them hard. One only settled once for a very bad photo. The rest of the time they were engaging in what seemed to be tussles on the wing, where they would rush together, and spiral, and then break off. One would then fly away, but then either it or another one would appear, and they would tussle again. I've put it down as breeding behaviour. Maybe defending their high patch.
3 comments
SuziBond
wrote:
16 Dec 2017
Well done getting this image, they can be tough butterflies to get photos of!
JudithRoach
wrote:
16 Dec 2017
Thanks, there is another sort of butterfly hill-topping on Mt Macdonald too, which is driving me nuts because it won't stay still for a piccie and ID. Hopefully I'll see it again when it's not so busy brawling with the other butterflies.
Location information
- Coordinates 148.768959-35.473509
- Maps Namadgi National Park
- Places Cotter River, ACT
Sighting information
- 4 - 15 Abundance
- 7 Dec 2017 01:11 PM Recorded on
- JudithRoach Recorded by
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Collections
Insects Butterflies (Lepidoptera, Rhopalocera) Swallowtails (Papilionidae) JudithRoach Canberra & Southern Tablelands NatureMapr
Additional information
- 25mm to 50mm Animal size
- Breeding behaviour Breeding behaviour
Species information
- Graphium macleayanum Scientific name
- Macleay's Swallowtail Common name
- Not Sensitive
- Local native
- Non-invasive or negligible
- Up to 1851.96m Recorded at altitude
- 227 images trained Machine learning
- External link More information
Record quality
- Images or audio
- More than one media file
- Verified by an expert moderator
- Nearby sighting(s) of same species
- GPS evidence of location
- Description
- Additional attributes
