Residents in the north of the Lismore LGA are sighting Richmond Birdwing Butterflies where they haven’t been seen before, including around Nimbin, in the village itself, Tuntable Creek and The Channon.

Lismore City Council’s Environmental Strategies team said explanations for this include displacement due to smoke and habitat loss due to the bushfires. 

Drought conditions may also mean they are moving further away from core habitat to find nectar.

Adult butterflies will feed on nectar from flowers of many native plants, including native frangipani (Hymenosporum flavum), pavetta (Pavetta australiensis), black bean (Castanospermum australe), broad-leaved paperbark (Melaleuca quinquenervia) and lilly pillies (Syzygium species), as well as several exotic flowers e.g. buddleia, pentas, lantana, honeysuckle, bougainvillea, impatiens and hibiscus.

They prefer white and red blooms to other colours.

The caterpillars (or larvae) only feed naturally on two species of vines – the lowland Richmond Birdwing butterfly vine (Pararistolochia praevenosa) and the Mountain aristolochia (Pararistolochia laheyana). The weed species Dutchmans Pipe (Aristolochia elegans) will poison the larvae caterpillars that hatch and begin feeding.

The two native host vines have been cultivated and planted widely around Lismore and throughout their range north to Gympie in order to assist in the recovery of the breeding habitats for the butterfly.

Even a small vine will provide a suitable site for egg laying and the caterpillars to feed, if it has some soft easily chewed leaves.

If you have either vine in your garden or on your property, consider giving them a good water to stimulate some fresh leaf growth over the next weeks and through summer as the butterflies will be laying eggs.

If you would like some factsheets on the Richmond Birdwing Butterfly, the Birdwing Butterfly Vine and cultivating the vine, contact our team and the Environmental Strategies team will e-mail them out to you. If you’d like to chat to a member of the team, phone 1300 87 83 87.