We had a visit from a butterfly that I had not previously seen at our location, it was very distinctive with bright colouring but I didn't have the camera and didn't think to use my phone.
However I did look it up in my reference book and identified it as a Macleay's Swallowtail, although disappointed I missed getting a photo.
As chance would have it the following day I saw a butterfly on a bush near where I was working and dashed over to see if I was in luck. Very pleased to see that I was and I did think to use the phone this time managing to get three photos before it fluttered off.
Two were hopeless and one looked OK but the distance and blending in with the bush it was hard to see without heavy cropping.
So not the best but enabled definite confirmation as a Macleay's Swallowtail Graphium macleayanus macleayanus. It is one of the smaller swallowtails with a wingspan of about 8cm in the PAPILIONIDAE genus of the 17 found in Australia. It is found from mid Queensland through NSW and Victoria to north and eastern Tasmania
Not far north of where we live is the Macleay River and I wondered at the naming of the butterfly and the river. My research found that both were named after Alexander Macleay who at the time of naming around 1814 was a world renowned entomologist and chairman of the Linnean Society of London.
He later emigrated to Australia together with his extensive insect collection which he used to found the Macleay Museum at the University of Sydney where his collection is still.
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