The scree slopes of North Knob in the Richmond Ranges are sharp,nasty and unstable. With my SLR, macro lens, flash and monster macro diffuser around my neck I was figuring this out first hand as I jumped and darted around. At this point you might think I’m mad, but it took me until I almost went head first over a scree cliff before I realised the same. It wasn’t the heat that made me do this (although it was pretty dam hot) – I was chasing a rare alpine butterfly called the Black Mountain Ringlet.
I’m not even sure why I was up there – probably the hottest day of the year and I left at midday which is about the worst time you can be up on the tops in full sun. I wasn’t expecting much maybe a plant or two in flower and a cool view back down into Nelson. As I crossed the first scree slope below North Knob I noticed something – it looked like a big black moth. Before I got the chance to get my camera out and take a photo it was off. As I kept walking I was thinking – thats pretty strange for a moth to be out in the middle of the day, and I don’t know that we have any big black moths that look anything like that. Almost as slowly as I was walking up the hill I clicked – it wasn’t a moth it was a ringlet butterfly!
The Black Mountain Ringlet (Percnodaimon merula) is a rare endemic butterfly that is only found in the South Island above 800m. Widely considered to be New Zealand’s longest lived butterfly they have a bunch of cool adaptations for the alpine environment. The most obvious is the black wings – they’re like solar panels for the butterfly allowing it to make the most of the sunshine and warmth. It also has a super fuzzy body – perhaps another adaptation to keep them insulated on the cold days up in the mountains.
Arriving at the next big scree field I started seeing more and more butterflies. Id start chasing one as it managed to fly just out of range. My camera setup really needed a butterfly that was happy to sit still long enough for me to get a shot. It was at this point I almost went over a scree cliff. Doing a bit of a stock take after the near miss I changed my strategy to looking for whatever they were feeding on. The first plant I noticed butterflies on was a Parahebe cheesemanii, I sorted myself a comfortable seat among the scree and waited. I even had one butterfly fly right in underneath me while I photographed the flowers!
By the time I made it back to the car I was totally knackered – I guesstimate it was 30 – 35 degrees up there – with no wind to boot. Whilst none of the photos I got are that stunning (potential for another trip maybe??) it was still super cool to be able to see something that so few people get to see.
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