Twenty years of effort to reinstate a long lost butterfly has paid off with hundreds of the rare insects released at specially planted sites last month.

The hand-reared butterflies have been released at Washpool, near Aldinga Beach, and in the Salisbury wetlands, says Tony Flaherty, Coast and Marine Manager with Natural Resources Adelaide and Mount Lofty Ranges.

 “We’re very excited to be ‘re-wilding’ the butterfly back into the Adelaide coast over the next few weeks with the help of volunteers.”



The Yellowish Sedge Skipper butterfly was last seen on the Adelaide Plains sometime around the late 1980s, as habitat loss and widespread use of insecticides saw it disappear from its coastal wetland habitats.

Two decades of work by local councils at Adelaide Plains, Playford, Salisbury and Onkaparinga with the Adelaide and Mount Lofty Natural Resources Management (NRM) Board have prepared the way for releasing the butterflies back into the wild.

Tony Flaherty says the need to conserve insects and other less obvious or charismatic species is sometimes overlooked but they are just as vital for our environment as other species.

“The butterfly relies on a plant, a sedge called Thatching Grass Gahnia filum, which was extensively cleared from Adelaide's coastal plains to make way for housing and agriculture.

“Intensive replanting efforts have gone on for many years in low-lying wetlands such as the Washpool at Aldinga Beach and at restored sedgelands in the Salisbury wetlands and near Waterloo Corner, in northern Adelaide.”

Some of the restored sites planted by primary school children 20 years ago have now grown into healthy sedgelands, which can support the butterflies.

The current batch of butterflies were raised from caterpillars and pupae collected from other parts of South Australia where the species still hangs on, such as the Yorke and Eyre peninsulas.

 “Already we’ve seen evidence that they are breeding and hopefully laying eggs, and we’d expect to see caterpillars appearing by June,” Tony says.

“To secure the future survival of this butterfly species, more sedgeland habitat will need to be established and more reintroductions will need to be made over the next few years.”