Butterflies have been happily fluttering around our butterfly walk on the Araucaria property, Scenic Rim. Queensland, although none of them are captive. And although most people hope there plants don’t get eaten, we’ve been happy to see caterpillars munching away on the leaves.

We’ve added a few features recently:

• colour-coding the butterfly families on our walk with coloured ropes along the tracks
• planting additional caterpillar foodplants
• planting extra plants for  attracting adult butterflies
• planting low-growing herbaceous and shrubby plants with flowers to match the colour theme for the butterfly family
• constructing a cement path in the shape of a caterpillar leading from the wildlife ecology centre  towards the start of the walk
• construction a “pupa” to walk through after the caterpillar just before the butterfly walk begins
• completing the life cycle by painting an egg on the step outside the centre before stepping onto the caterpillar tail

(just as well Darren wasn’t still on that ladder when it fell)

orchard butterfly caterpillar

 

Blue Tiger butterfly