A preliminary bioinventory of the butterflies of Talaroo Station in north Queensland's Einasleigh Uplands

There are few studies of the butterfly fauna of north Queenslands's Einasleigh Uplands. We conducted a preliminary bioinventory of the butterflies of Talaroo Station which is 40 kilometres east of Georgetown on the western bank of the Einasleigh River. We detected 40 species, 37 during 26 spot surveys ( to 3 hours each) and three incidentally. Pieridae, Nymphalidae and Lycaenidae were the best represented families. Records of twelve species represent westward extensions to known ranges into drier country, and three species represent other extensions to known range, confirming that the region is poorly surveyed. The larval food plants of five species are associated with semi-evergreen vine-thickets, small patches (mostly much less than 1 ha) of which occur among rocks in remote and largely inaccessible parts of Talaroo. Further surveys concentrating on these patches, particularly in the wet season, and also surveys of butterfly larvae are likely to yield more butterfly species.