Australian Painted Lady
McCoy on extraordinary butterfly phenomenon, Prodromus
In the latter end of September and the beginning of October of last year this Butterfly appeared in extraordinary numbers for two or three weeks, accompanied by a day-flying Moth, Agrotis spina, almost darkening the sky with their general flight towards the south-east, covering the gear and decks of ships many miles out at sea, and filling the air on land from the northern parts of the colony down south to Melbourne.
They poured into Gippsland in such quantities as to spread consternation amongst the settlers, who inundated me with letters inquiring whether their crops or orchards or vineyards would be destroyed by the larvae expected to follow. I was glad to be able to assure them that the only likely damage would be to hated weeds.
The newspapers mentioned the stoppage of trains in the tunnel on the Castlemaine Railway, from the masses of bodies of those insects crushed lubricating the wheels to such an extent that they could not bite the rails as they turned, and came to a standstill until sufficient supplies of sand could be sent.
- Frederick McCoy