mist closed in, becoming a heavy rain shower. What 
good timing! 
Cyrtostylis reniformis (small gnat-orchid) flowering at Plunkett 
Point. Photo: James Wood 
Some of the birds that we did see and hear locally were: 
a large flock of cattle egrets in a nearby field, yellow 
throated honey eaters, superb blue wrens, scarlet 
robins, crescent honeyeater and kookaburra. 
Cory has diemenicus (stately helmet-orchid) flowering at the 
Coal Mines Historic Site. Photo: James Wood 
Rabbit and Bennett's wallaby scats were common 
among the ruins. We also saw wombat scats and 
echidna diggings (definite pointy impressions within the 
larger diggings). We found a very small brown tree frog 
under a rock. A male Tasmanian grasshopper 
(Tasmaniacris tasmaniensis) was found by James Wood. 
Kevin found several species of snail including a species 
not previously recorded on the Tasman Peninsula. 
Excursion to find the Tasmanian Chaostola Skipper September 2012 
Peter Jarman and Margaret Brock 
O n a morning of showers, rainbows and strong wind 
(i.e. a Tasmanian spring morning), about thirty Field 
Nats gathered in the Peter Murrell Reserves, Blackmans 
Bay, where we were introduced to Dr Phil Bell, Manager 
of the Threatened Species Section of DPIPWE. 
Field Nats gathered at Peter Murrell Reserves 
Photo: Michael Driessen 
The previous day, National Threatened Species Day (7 th 
September, the anniversary of the death in captivity of 
the last known thylacine), Phil had launched the 
Tasmanian Government's Threatened Species Link (see 
www.threatenedspecieslink.tas.gov.au ), giving web 
access to what is known of Tasmania's 600+ threatened 
species. Phil is an expert on Tasmania's endangered and 
rare butterflies and was leading this excursion to show 
us what he could of the Tasmanian Chaostola Skipper 
Antipodia chaostola leucophaea, one of three butterfly 
species listed as endangered in Tasmania. He 
emphasised that the species is known from only a 
couple of sites on the east coast (Freycinet and Little 
Swanport) and a few sites between Kingston and 
Coningham. He discovered the Chaostola Skipper 
population in the Peter Murrell Reserves only seven 
years ago, yet this now appears to be where the species 
can most reliably be found. Hence it is an extremely 
important site for the species' conservation. 
However, the butterfly is not easy to find. Adults are 
rarely seen, and fly for only a few weeks early in 
summer. It is a little easier to find the shelters built by 
their larvae (caterpillars), and Phil set out to teach us the 
skill of recognising those, since that is the best way to 
survey the species' occurrence. The Chaostola Skipper's 
caterpillar feeds on leaves of the thatch saw-sedge 
Gahnia radula; and each caterpillar makes itself a shelter 
by weaving silken threads to pull together two or more 
saw-sedge leaves, forming a narrow tepee, open at the 
bottom, in which it can shelter, head-down. The trick to 
spotting the shelter is to look for a leaf that is bent 
inwards and bound to others; sometimes the ends of the 
leaves may show signs of being eaten off by the 
caterpillar. 
Tasmanian Field Naturalists Club 
Page 6 
BULLETIN 348 Oct 2012 
