This year (2025) some of the monarch butterflies, which Ellen Reid (our Museum Director) has been breeding and released, have taken up residence in the Queen Mary Botanical Gardens, here in St Arnaud. They are currently roosting in large numbers in the enormous Claret Ash tree, which is in front of the public toilets. You can spot them camoflagued in amongst some of the dead leaves overhanging the drain, near the pond (see photo below). They come out when it's sunny and fly around and nectar on the salvias, which are currently in flower.
Watch a video of Monarch Butterflies in the St Arnaud Queen Mary Botanical Gardens here:
https://www.thebiblemuseum.com.au/images/St-Arnaud-Butterflies.mp4
Some of the Monarch Butterflies roosting in a cluster on the Claret Ash tree:
Jezebel Butterflies
Ellen and Jean have been raising Red Spotted Jezebels every spring since 2012. Here is the story of how it all started.
The Bible Museum Garden was visited by a Red Spotted Jezebel Butterfly (Delias aganippe) in early October 2012. She and the other butterflies in their flock were at the end of their migratory flight from northern Victoria and the Flinders Ranges in SA. However, they laid their eggs on the wrong plant (olive and loquat trees) around St Arnaud. Their caterpillars only eat parasitic plants, such as Quandong and Sandalwood. Having spotted that there were hundreds of eggs on the wrong plants we decided to rescue them from certain death and rear them on the correct plants and release them back into the wild. We gave them two different types of mistletoe leaves and cherry ballart, but wouldn't eat any of it and were dying. In desperation we rang Macca on the ABC to appeal for Quandong, see ABC's 'Macca' Australia All Over blog, and to our great relief some was located and the little caterpillars thrived on it.
And yes, Jezebel was the really 'bad girl' of the Bible, wife of King Ahab of Israel.
Some people know this butterfly (Delias aganippe) by a different common name, the 'Wood White'. Dr Michael Braby (author of the 2 vol 'Butterflies of Australia' book), one of Australia's leading butterfly experts, says it is more appropriate to call them by the name 'Jezebel', as this is the common name by which all other butterflies in the Delias group are commonly known.
Update December 2024: Another year passes when the Jezebel butterflies have continued to lay on the wrong host plant around St Arnaud, including our own garden. We released approximately 1,500 butterflies, and successfully hosted their caterpillars on both quandong and wire leaf mistletoe.
Update December 2017: This year has been our most successful in rearing the Jezebel butterflies, with over 1,500 released in early December 2017. They very quickly left the St Arnaud area and we assume they are migrating once again to their summer home at Rye, on the Mornington Peninsula. We expect to see them back in the area in Autumn, around May 2018.
Update September 2015: Once again, the Jezebels have flown to St Arnaud and laid their eggs on the wrong trees. We have collected several hundred eggs on loquat and olive trees. When we visited a farm up near Donald, there were several hundred eggs on olive trees, right next to an paddock full of quandongs! After examining the quandongs we discovered some overwintering caterpillars and pupae, so having rescued them from the meat ants which were eating them, we have them on display here at the Bible Museum. The pupae should be hatching into butterflies around mid-late September, so we will keep a small number of live butterflies in our butterfly enclosure. The eggs, caterpillars, pupae and butterflies can all be viewed by the general public.