The butterflies of El Questro Wilderness Park, with remarks on the taxonomy of the Kimberley fauna, Australia

WA Museum Records and Supplements | Updated 7 years ago

ABSTRACT – El Questro Wilderness Park comprises a relatively large privately owned wilderness area in the monsoon tropics of the eastern Kimberley, north-western Australia. Targeted surveys for butterflies were conducted between 2009 and 2012 during the dry season. Fifty-three species were recorded; a further two species are recorded in the literature, bringing the total list of butterflies for El Questro Wilderness Park to 55 species (or 68% of the Kimberley fauna). Comments are made on their occurrence, relative abundance, habitat preference and larval food plant associations. Several species represent new records for the eastern Kimberley, most of which comprise significant range extensions from previously known coastal localities in the northern and/or western Kimberley. Taxonomic remarks are made for fi ve species listed for the wider Kimberley region for which there is considerable uncertainty. One of these, Telicota ancilla baudina Evans, 1949, is shown to comprise a junior synonym of Telicota augias krefftii (W.J. Macleay, 1866); the others comprise taxonomic misidentifications (Pelopidas agna, Theclinesthes serpentatus) or there is doubt regarding their authenticity (Delias mysis, Danaus plexippus). The exclusion of these taxa brings the revised total number of species of butterflies recorded for the Kimberley to 81, of which only one is endemic to the region.