Yellowish Sedge-skipper butterfly making comeback in Adelaide
It’s been officially gone for decades but a tiny former local is finally set to flutter around our city again. And it’s very exciting news for the people who made it happen.
SA News
Don't miss out on the headlines from SA News. Followed categories will be added to My News.
A long-lost butterfly is making a comeback in Adelaide after decades of work to secure the species’ habitat and prepare sites for its reintroduction.
Natural Resources Adelaide and Mount Lofty Ranges says the Yellowish Sedge-skipper was locally extinct, having last been seen in 1985. Natural Resources coast and marine manager Tony Flahertyis “very excited” to bring the species back to Adelaide.
“This is the culmination of a 20-year project with local councils, which has involved replanting sedges that are the host plant for the caterpillars,” he said.
“After many years of effort, there is now enough habitat to ‘re-wild’ the butterfly back to the Adelaide coast.”
The final stage has involved collecting caterpillars and pupae from other parts of South Australia, where the species is still hanging on, and raising them in captivity to produce healthy adults.
“Already we’ve seen ample evidence that they are breeding and hopefully laying their own eggs,” Mr Flaherty said.
He said butterflies were important plant pollinators and it was vital to protect them and other insects.
The skipper’s demise followed the loss of habitat, particularly a plant known as thatching grass, which early settlers used for roofing. The plant was later cleared for housing and agriculture.
Volunteer Andy Lines, 56 of Hackham, has been “baby sitting” more than 100 skippers as they go through their life cycle, from larvae collected in the wild near the Coorong and Yorke Peninsula, through to adults ready for release.
“I'm a bit of a conservationist, just trying to make things better,” he said.
Most of the skippers have already been released at low-lying wetlands, such as the Washpool at Aldinga Beach.
