NSW residents and visitors are being urged to keep an eye out for one of Australia’s rarest butterflies this spring.
“Citizen scientists” can help save the endangered species — which plays an important role in its local ecosystem — by recording and reporting sightings, the NSW Government said on Wednesday.
The easiest way to spot a purple copper butterfly is to walk through areas where their favourite food, native blackthorn, grows and look for flashes of the iridescent purple and orange which the rare beauties are named after.
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“When butterflies are disturbed, they fly for a few seconds … (and they) are most active on calm, sunny days between 10am and 2pm,” the NSW Department of Environment said.
The purple copper butterfly — known scientifically as Paralucia spinifera and commonly as the Bathurst copper — is currently only known to inhabit the Central Tablelands.
A 2021 sighting in Namadji National Park in the ACT was “thought to be a purple copper butterfly,” NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water threatened species officer Alison Cowie said.
But it was later determined to be a separate, new species of butterfly called Paralucia crosbyi.
“This means the purple copper butterfly is still only known from sites within the Bathurst, Oberon and Lithgow areas,” Cowie said.
It is hoped enlisting the help of everyday nature lovers will enable the government’s Saving Species program to locate new populations of the rare butterfly and understand more about them.
The survival of the purple copper butterfly is not just important for the continuation of its own species, but for the species with which it has a unique and symbiotic relationship.
“The purple copper butterfly is not only one of our rarest butterflies, it is also a fascinating species that has a mutually beneficial relationship with a native ant,” Cowie said.
“The caterpillars of purple copper butterflies live on native blackthorn (plant) and as they grow they are protected from predators by this ant.
“The ants are rewarded for their work with a sweet honeydew secreted from glands on the caterpillars’ backs.”
Anyone who spots a purple copper butterfly in the wild is urged to report the sighting via the free Butterflies Australia app or via email to [email protected].
“Please include the date, time, location and any photographs when reporting a sighting,” DCCEW said.
