Far North Queensland Butterflies.

I love to see butterflies in my garden and to my delight, the sighting of a small local species of The Monarch Butterfly, came fluttering through this morning as I watered some of the freshly planted pots.

I did capture the Monarch's on camera Click Here to see them, last January whilst on a small vacation and I also did a search for the beautiful Ulysses Butterfly from Queensland. In doing so I came across a slide show so kindly offered for sharing by This Enthusiastic Photographer. Click here

He has a wonderful slide show of butterflies from the Kuranda Butterfly Sanctuary a place I have heard of but never been to, up until now.

I did get to Kuranda a few years back and because there was much to see in between my trip up through the rain forest in the gondola and back down the mountains in the old train, my time was too short to make the trip to the Sanctuary.

Kuranda Butterfly Sanctuary--Far North Queensland, Australia

I was searching originally for this butterfly below. It truly is beautiful. What do you think?

The Ulysses butterfly (Papilio Ulysses), also known as the blue mountain butterfly, is a large Australian swallowtail. The Ulysses butterfly has a wingspan of about 14 cm (5.5 inches). It lives in northeastern Australia along the coast of Queensland. It inhabits tropical rain forest areas and suburban gardens. The Ulysses butterfly's favourite food plant is euodia (Melicope elleryana), a tree with clusters of small pink flowers growing straight out of the branches. The upper side the wings are an iridescent electric blue; the underside is a more subdued black and brown in colouration.

The colours are produced by the microscopic structure of the scales.
Ulysses butterfly at the Melbourne Zoo