Paralucia crosbyi (Violet Copper Butterfly)

Canberra Nature Map sighting leads to discovery of new butterfly species

On 12 August 2021 Susan Wishart posted a sighting of a butterfly from the Brandy Flat Fire Trail in Namadgi, which she thought may have been a Common Blue Zizina otis. It was identified as a new population of Paralucia, and provisionally identified as P. spinifera – the Bathurst or Purple Copper, which prior to this was only known from a few small sites in the Bathurst area. Subsequent study of the Namadgi Paralucia found it to be a new species Paralucia crosbyi.

This new species appears to be a narrow-range endemic, restricted to dry montane eucalypt open woodland or woodland between 920 and 1130 m asl, in which the mean annual rainfall varies from 700 to 800 mm and where there is an abundance of the larval food plant Blackthorn, Bursaria spinosa subsp. lasiophylla and colonies of the attendant ant Anonychomyrma sp. (itinerans species group), a species of Black Cocktail Ant. The vegetation structure needs to be open canopy and understorey (i.e. open woodland) allowing penetration of sunlight to the ground layer during morning and afternoon to facilitate basking and thermoregulation by adults.

Adults fly from late July to early October. Eggs are laid singly or pairs generally on the ground near the base of a Blackthorn shrub. Caterpillars (larvae) feed on Blackthorn leaves. After the second instar the caterpillars feed nocturnally and are attended by large numbers of Black Cocktail Ants. When not feeding they retreat to the base of the main stem/trunk of the food plant to hide usually just below ground level, in a byre constructed by the attendant ant. The larvae pupate in ant galleries deep in the soil for about 9 months of the year. Adults only fly during sunshine. By reporting flying adults NatureMaprs have mapped the butterfly across much of south-east Namadgi National Park and currently two location is NSW, one near Captains Flat, the other from the Tinderry Mountains. Please keep an eye out for it during the flying season and report any occurrences.

Braby, M.F. (2024) A new species of Paralucia Waterhouse & Turner, 1905 (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae) from the highlands of south-eastern Australia. Austral Entomology , 63(2), 224– 243. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1111/aen.12688

Paralucia crosbyi is listed in the following regions:

Canberra & Southern Tablelands