On Wed, Aug 20, 2003 at 10:32:55AM +0930, Tony Russell wrote:
> Agreed, and I've seen them nesting in palms at Wentworth at the
> confluence of the Murray and Darling - quite common in fact.
The natural range of the Palm-darts (Cephrenes sp.) includes only the
coast in NSW according to Butterflies of Australia. Both Wentworth and
Coonabarabran are well outside the range it gives. So Blue-Faced HE's
should not be eating Palm-dart larvae in either place.
But Butterflies of Australia does describe recent range expansions of
Orange Palm-dart (C. augiades) to include urban/suburban locations in
the NT, SA, Vic and WA. The locations are coastal except for Albury.
So its not impossible that Wentworth or Coonabarabran Blue-Faced HE's
feast on Palm-darts (and thanks to Paul W. for the interesting piece
of ecology).
Andrew
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