A butterfly with bright blue wings flits through the trees. Her deep blue wings, trimmed with black, shimmer in the sunlight. She makes her home in the bushland of Australia. This butterfly is looking around for somewhere to lay her eggs. She is called the Amaryllis Azure Butterfly.

This beautiful azure-blue butterfly can't survive all alone in the bush. She needs others to help her to live and grow, just like you need someone to give you food, shelter, and love. The butterfly depends on a plant, a tree, an ant, and a bird. Without them she would not be able to survive.

The butterfly chooses the perfect place to lay her eggs—on the leaves or near the stems of one of the mistletoe plants like the box or drooping mistletoe. Mistletoe is the plant that people hang over the doorway at Christmas for everyone to kiss under. But mistletoe is not just a bunch of leaves! It's a semi-parasitic plant. This means it lives off another species for at least some of its food. It clings to the branches of the eucalyptus trees (pronounced u-ka-lip-tis), taking water and food from the tree.

Soon the eggs hatch into larvae. These are yellowish-grey caterpillars. The caterpillar is very fussy about what it eats and it only likes the mistletoe plant. Luckily it is born right on top of its favorite food!

Along comes the ant. A tiny sugar ant climbs to the top of the eucalyptus tree looking for food. The caterpillar produces a liquid, which the ant loves to eat. The ant likes this liquid so much, that it takes care of the little caterpillar like a royal slave. It even keeps away any predators like wasps and flies.

The caterpillar eats and eats and eats. It eats so much and grows so fat it bursts out of its skin many times. This is called moulting.

Finally, the caterpillar becomes a pupa. The pupa is enclosed in a firm case called a chrysalis. The chrysalis is brownish in color and two centimeters long—less than one inch. Inside, the caterpillar gradually transforms into the beautiful adult butterfly. Finally, it emerges from the chrysalis and flaps its wings to dry them out. The butterfly flutters away looking for some nectar to drink. It does not have far to fly because it senses delicious nectar in the red flowers of the mistletoe.

Soon the butterfly goes in search of a partner. After they mate, the female flies back to the mistletoe plant to lay her eggs on the leaves. So the cycle begins again.

The Mistletoe bird is part of this story. It loves the bright berries on the mistletoe plant. The seeds from inside the fruit pass through the bird quickly and land on the branches of the eucalyptus tree, where they stick and sprout into new mistletoe. The bird is important in helping the mistletoe spread new plants over the tops of the eucalyptus trees.

The Amaryllis Azure Butterfly depends on the lives of a mistletoe plant, a eucalyptus tree, a sugar ant, and a mistletoe bird for its survival. There is a very special relationship between all these living things. If something goes wrong or one of the species dies out, then the others are in danger.

Now you know the life story of the plant, the tree, the ant, the bird, and the butterfly. They depend on each other like you depend on your family and friends. The Amaryllis Azure butterfly flying through the trees in the Australian bush is dazzling. Its life is a delicate balance—as delicate as its amazing, shimmery blue wings.

References:

Colfelt, David. The Whitsundays Book. NSW: Windward Productions Pty Ltd, 1995.

Slater, Pat. First Field Guide to Australian Insects and Spiders. Queensland: Steve Parish Publishing Pty Ltd, 1997.

Internet:
http://www-staff.mcs.uts.edu.au/~don/larvae/lyca/zosine.html
http://www.ento.csiro.au/aicn/name_s/b_2883.htm
http://www.ento.csiro.au/Ecowatch/Primary/butterflies/pages/Ogryris_amaryllis.htm
http://users.chariot.net.au/~rbg/amaryllis_ds.htm

Photo courtesy CSIRO Entomology

Margaret Etherton is a teacher, tutor and freelance writer. She has taught a range of subjects, such as reading, writing, mathematics and computers to people of all ages--- from small kids to seniors! Margaret lives close to the beach in Sydney with her husband, two of her four children and her cat, Mushka.

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