In the Dunes

I walked through the sand dunes at Lighthouse Beach, Ballina, today and came across this Blue Tiger butterfly, Tirumala hamata. It ranges from the Phillipines to Australia and some of the Pacific Islands. 

There is more information on this webpage from the Coffs Harbour Butterfly House (200 km south of us), which we planned to visit last week, during our visit to Red Rock. Unfortunately, the day before our planned visit, Coffs Harbour was hit by a severe thunderstorm with large hail. Much of the town was damaged, including the Butterfly House. We're told that 95% of its butterflies were killed or escaped. We didn't visit, of course. It's all very sad.

I've chosen this as the main photo because it shows clearly the butterfly's head and proboscis. The extra is a 'top down' view.