Butterfly visitors this summer

First season in the butterfly garden, part one

June 2025

The first season in the butterfly garden was a truncated one with the move to the new house in late September and the work on planting the garden only really beginning in December, at the start of summer. Nevertheless this year has seen butterfly species in the garden that I didn't think would come. It's too early for conclusions but it is worth looking back and seeing what happened.

The corner of the butterfly garden in March. Still too many lomandra and not enough flowers!

Monarch butterflies

After glimpses of them in October and December, the monarch butterflies arrived in the garden at the very start of February after a rather impatient wait by yours truly. A pair were regular visitors for the month, but I didn't see any after four weeks. Although they mated, I didn't find any eggs on the tropical milkweed.

Monarchs only live for about two months in the summer, so once I lost this pair, no others came to replace them. Monarch breeding in Auckland goes on until the end of April and, depending on the weather, even later. The autumn generations are not targeted by the wasps once the cold weather hits so there is usually a fair overwintering population. At the old garden we would have monarchs around on the sunny winter days, but given the lack of butterflies during the summer here in Birkenhead, I don't expect to see any more until the spring. Hopefully with the garden a little more established in a few months' time, we'll have more regular visitors and hopefully they will breed.

A pair of monarch butterflies mating, mid-February 2025

Yellow Admiral butterflies

I was not expecting to see any yellow admirals this year, so to have a female lay eggs on multiple visits during April was incredibly special. Her caterpillars did well and there are chrysalis under the eves of the house and in all my caterpillar castles. Some have already eclosed. Hopefully we can have yellow admirals in the butterfly garden next season, if the new generation stay in the area.

There is still the odd caterpillar around and there will be enough potted nettle to see them through, but all my nettle plants have been fed on and will need to grow back before I can support any more butterflies.

Murphy's Law, I had just planted some small nettles into a large planter, ready for next season, when the female first arrived. The plants were far too little to support caterpillars so I moved the majority of them to large pots of nettles. We'll see if those little nettles recover or whether I'll need to replace them.

The first of a new generation of yellow admiral butterflies born in the garden

Red Admiral butterflies

The only red admirals in the garden this year were the ones raised in captivity from caterpillars laid elsewhere in the city. All in all I released 15 between November and May. There are definitely lessons to learn from this first attempt at raising them, mostly issues that did not arise when I was raising butterflies on a protected deck at the old house. It's unfortunate that I had to experience these with precious red admirals. You can read about the parasitic wasps that struck and the weather issues that hit different generations. I may have to ask hubby to make me a mini-structure to go over the castles before attempting to raise any more.

The last red admiral released in May

Common and long-tailed blue butterflies

I loved seeing the two local blue butterfly species in the garden this summer. It's probably thanks to my neighbour who only mows occasionally that I've had the blues visit, as our lawn gets mowed often and on a low setting. I have planted sweetpeas and snail vines, so that the long-tailed blues can reproduce in our garden. I'll see if that pays off next summer. The garden has provided good nectar sources for the blues, so I'm glad that even with a small range of flowers, the butterfly garden has met their needs as well as larger butterflies.

The trailing lantana was just one of the flowers the common blue fed from

Cabbage White butterflies

I have learned to like cabbage whites since moving to Birkenhead. I was pretty neutral about them before. As I am not a vegetable grower, they were not a pest for me, but neither are they native, so I have not actively planted brassicas to attract them. However, given the lack of butterfly-friendly flowers in the garden, they were the only butterflies around in the first months here and I looked forward to seeing them when they passed by. I still don't think that I'll plant food for their caterpillars, as this might attract more parasitic wasps that will attack native admiral pupae, but I will certainly welcome the adults into the nectar garden.

Cabbage white butterfly, February 2025

Moths

I hadn't expected to see so many new species of moth as I have since moving to the new house and so many being native species too. I have recorded 116 species of moths since we came and that seems extraordinary for one garden, especially as these are only the moths attracted to this particular wavelength of UV light (368nm) and in a beginner's Skinner-type trap. I know from iNaturalist that there are moth species in the area that I haven't seen yet in the garden, and I spotted a pink-tipped yellow moth in Kauri Point Centennial Park, a short walk away, that feeds on rangiora, which is not currently in the garden.

There have been some beautiful moths, but the most unusual I've seen so far is Macarostola miniella, a moth with two variations, both very colourful. I feel like it was designed in the 1970s after someone had a couple of sherries. What makes this find even more special is that its host plant, swamp maire, Syzygium maire, is critically endangered. On top of that, the swamp maire we do have locally is functionally extinct due to myrtle rust. Functionally extinct means it cannot grow or reproduce, so whilst there are still adult plants in the area, they will be the last.

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Macarostola miniella, December 2024

So what hasn't visited?

New Zealand, and northern New Zealand in particular, has limited moths and butterflies. Things get more interesting, lepidopterally speaking, as you head south (it's a valid, made-up phrase and I'm sticking by it). However, there is one other type of butterfly I hope to attract and that is relatively local - coppers. There are two species of copper butterfly that call Auckland home - the North Island coastal copper and Maui's copper. Both live on muehlenbeckia species as caterpillars.

The garden already has one type of muehlenbeckia, and I planted a couple of pohuehue (which I've been told I may regret) as another type of host plant for both local coppers. However, coppers do not venture very far from their birth places, so I have to have faith that if I plant it, they will come. Eventually.

A coastal copper seen at New Year at Waihi Beach

Summary

Given the late start to the work and the small size of the butterfly garden, it seems incredible that I attracted a variety of butterflies to a site that previously had precious few flowers that were accessible to them. The pilot garden has been successful enough that hubby is happy for me to convert a fair bit of lawn to flower beds. It will take time for those beds to become established, but it also shows that even new plantings will help attract butterflies. I am excited to see the results of the expansion and planting I'm doing now. It'll also be interesting to see if the reduced lawn size will impact the common blues. There will still be grass paths around the garden beds, but most of the remaining lawn area will be in shade for some or most of the day. As with everything, time will tell.