Location

The Lesser Wanderer Butterfly is found throughout mainland Australia and some parts of Tasmania. Gugs Lushai, Myron P Zalucki, David A S Smith, Dave Goulson1 and Greg Daniels

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Appearance

The Lesser Wanderer is a medium-sized butterfly with a wingspan of 60mm. (Brisbane Insects and Spiders Website)  On the upper surface, this butterfly is coloured pale tan-orange. The outer margins of both wings and tip of the forewing are black. The underside colouration is generally paler and the sexes are similar. The butterflies only have four legs. Coffs Harbour Butterfly House

 

"Both sexes are similar, but males can be distinguished by the presence of a single, small raised black sex pouch in the lower-centre of each hindwing. The males also have a pair of grey "hairpencils" enclosed near the tip of their abdomens, which they can protrude and expand into a feathery like mop and dispense a characteristic scented pheromone, which is required for successful courtship." Roger Grund​

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"The eggs are pale yellow and bullet-shaped. They are laid singly on young growth of a foodplant." Coffs Harbour Butterfly House

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"The caterpillars look similar to those of the Monarch, though the mature caterpillars are quite a bit smaller. They have a background pattern of pale yellow and black stripes and linear lozenges and a large, yellow, oval spot surrounded by black on each body segment. The larva has three, not two, pairs of filament-like tentacles on the body. A pair is situated near the head and at the rear of the body, and it has a third pair about one-third of the length of the body from the rear." Hunt, Grund, Keane & Forrest

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"The caterpillar grows to a length of about 3-4 mm. The pupa hangs by its tail from a leaf of the foodplant and has a length of about 15 mm. In life, it is greenish-brown with a golden ring around the thorax. The skin turns brown once the butterfly has left the pupa." Coffs Harbour Butterfly House

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Diet

The Lesser Wanderer feeds on Native Milkweeds (outside the South-West of WA) and introduced Milkweed. Robert Powell and Matthew Williams  More specifically, *Asclepias curassavica (red-head cotton-bush), *Gomphocarpus (Asclepias) fruticosus (swan plant), *G. physocarpus (balloon cotton-bush), *G. cancellatus (rotundifolia) (broad-leaved cotton-bush), *Calotropis spp incl. *C. procera (king's crown), Cynanchum species including C. floribundum (desert cynanchum or native pear), Marsdenia (Leichhardtia) australis (native pear), Rhyncharrhena (Pentatropis) linearis (bush bean or cotton vine), *Orbea (Stapelia) variegata (carrion flower), Sarcostemma spp (Asclepiadaceae). Roger Grund

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Poisonous Protection

"The entire life history of the butterfly is poisonous, in varying degrees. Their larval milkweed hostplants often contain poisons, which the larva is able to isolate and retain in its body as a protection against vertebrate predation. These poisons can be passed on to the pupa and the adult butterfly. The latter can further top up its poisons by imbibing (sucking and assimilating) the sap and surface exudates from the hostplant again, or from other poisonous plants. From the latter, the male butterfly obtains further poisons (pyrrolizidine alkaloids), which are necessary for the production of the hair-pencil pheromones. The pyrrolizidine poisons are also emitted as a defence mechanism through the hair-pencils when the male butterfly is attacked, or even when it is roughly manhandled. The cardiac glycoside poisons are passed onto the eggs by the female to complete the cycle. These poisons are usually insufficient concentrations to only sicken the vertebrate predators or at least taste unpalatable, so that the predators can learn from the experience and pass on the mistake. They are not meant to cause death as this would likely result in larger numbers of the insect being killed." Roger Grund