Finally we have had some rain after the driest year only having half our annual rainfall in the 25 years I have been recording. The land is suffering and the wildlife numbers well down as they moved away looking for better conditions elsewhere.
We have been fortunate to not have the devastating fires in our area but I have been busy with our brigade working on fires in the wider region. The recent rain has been a welcome break and already things are on the improve with more wildlife moving back, hopefully the rain pattern continues.
Last night we had a visitor attracted by the light and I thought it was a moth that I hadn't seen before but on a closer look found it was a butterfly that I hadn't seen before.
I identified it as a female Common Red Eye or Eastern Dusk Flat, Chaetocneme beata and as is common with this genus they usually fly at dusk (this one was still flying late in the evening). Of the four Australian species found in Australia this is the only one found south of Queensland, with its range from tropical Queensland to just south of Sydney.
The larvae have been found to feed on introduced plants custard apple and camphor laurel as well as native food plants including Tristania and Acmena.
