New Zealand Blues
A little endemic butterfly, only found on the eastern South Island
This is the final post in my series inspired by the species featured in my
2024 calendar, Wildlife of East Otago.
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Good morning friends!
Today’s the last day of photographs from my calendar - thanks for joining me to explore our coastal & garden wildlife, and an extra big thanks to those who have supported my work by purchasing a calendar. I’ve had wonderfully positive feedback and really appreciate it - I’ve got about six copies left so don’t hold out too long if you’ve been wanting to get your hands on one.
Today we’re looking at the blue butterflies of Aotearoa. The Southern blue (or New Zealand blue; Zizina oxleyi) is December’s image and is pretty much only found in the south-east of Te Wai Pounamu, the South Island.1 There are other species, like the common blue (Zizina otis), which are distributed from India to Aotearoa,2 and the self-introduced Long-tailed blue which is found worldwide.
They’re not easy to see - even with their wings outspread, they’re barely an inch long. Their shimmering blue-purple wings are a mottled grey-brown when folded, and their flight is quite erratic, a bit more moth-like than other butterflies. I often only see them by lying belly-down in the grass and looking for movement. They also seem to have a fondness for the sun-drenched garden hose so that’s a place for me to start my search!
Unlike most other butterflies, the blue caterpillars aren’t too fussy about what they eat. They’ll happily chew through most low-growing legumes,3 including clover and trefoil, both of which are super common. The Moths & Butterflies NZ Trust (MBNZT) also sell seeds for snail vine, which is a host plant for the long-tailed blue if you’re in the northern climes. But for all of us - if you’d like to get more blue butterflies in your garden just leave a patch of clover in your lawn to grow.
More of a threat to these butterflies is disturbance during their pupa phase, as they overwinter at ground level amongst leaves and debris4, awaiting the warmer summer weather to emerge. And us humans have a tendency to rake up the leaves! So, as the Xerces Society so poetically puts it: leave the leaves!
This doesn’t mean your garden needs to be messy. You can rake the leaves off pathways and driveways, and let them act as free & nutritious mulch for your garden beds. One easy solution is to create garden beds around your deciduous trees so they’ll mulch the garden for you - or add deciduous trees into your existing garden beds!
Earlier this year I wrote about the Southern blue, and my excitement when I first discovered them. If you’d like to know more than click the link below to read, or head over to the MBNZT website to learn more about all our lepidoptera.
Happy habitat building!
Zenobia💙
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Southern blue/NZ blue. https://www.nzbutterflies.org.nz/species-info/southern-blue/
Common Grass Blue. https://www.learnaboutbutterflies.com/India-Zizinaotis.html
Southern Blue. https://nzbutterfly.info/resident/southern-blue/
Common Blue. https://nzbutterfly.info/resident/common-blue/index.htm
Love this, and love little blue butterflies!