Blue tiger butterfly

This morning there were 2 butterflies in the vegetable garden, one of which was this:

Blue Tiger butterfly

The image is a bit cloudy as it was taken through a plastic container as I wanted to release the butterfly unharmed.


The scientific name is : Tirumala hamata
common names : Blue wanderer  or Blue tiger butterfly

The wing span is about  7cm   (3")

It is similar in size and shape to the Monarch butterfly that most people recognise and indeed I thought it was this initially.  The Blue tiger is a tropical butterfly that comes south in Spring/Summer and can occur in larger numbers although we only see isolated ones on our property. Some internet sites state that Captain Cook recorded seeing masses of this butterfly in 1770 but a search of his journal entries whilst he was in Queensland waters did not locate any such mention, that I could find.  It is always good to check back when claims like this are made to verify accuracy as it is easy for mistakes to be propagated by simply being repeated.

The reported food sources of this plant are the milk weed and monkey rope vine  (Parsonsia straminea) - both of which occur on our property.

The other butterfly in the vegetable garden was the Common Crow 
( Euploea core)

More showers today