The demise of mass migration of the Brown Awl Badamia exclamationis (Fabricius 1775) (Lepidoptera: Hesperiidae): a consequence of land clearing in Queensland?

Abstract

The impacts of human activities on the environment are frequently measured by reference to habitat loss or the successive listing of species as extinct or threatened with extinction. There is another measure of disturbance that relates to significant behavioural change that may fall short, at least for the moment, of species loss. Brower and Malcolm (1991) first drew attention to this new conservation theme of "endangered phenomena". They defined an endangered phenomenon as a "spectacular aspect of the life history of an animal or plant species involving a large number of individuals that is threatened with impoverishment or demise". In this paper the apparent decline of seasonal long-distance migration in a skipper butterfly, the Brown Awl Badamia exclamationis is documented and linked to large scale vegetation clearing in Queensland.