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to chew. The black and white banded larvae also absorb a number of poisonous chemicals called Pyrrolizidine Alkaloids (PAs) from the corky milk vine that get passed on through the pupae phase to the adult butterflies. This provides them with protection from birds and other vertebrate predators, as it has a very bitter taste and the predators learn to avoid the Blue Tiger Butterfly. As they become butterflies they can also imbibe PAs from a number of plants to top up their protection.
Recent rainfall was the trigger for the flight of the Blue Tiger Butterfly (Tirumala Hamata) that is currently migrating down the north-east coast of Australia from north Queensland. The Blue Tiger Butterfly has numerous pale blue streaks and elongated spots on its wings. They fly with a gliding, sailing flight about one to two metres above the ground, especially on or near a beach. During times like the recent drought, females stop breeding and adults congregate in large numbers along the north-east coast of Australia. They aggregate (group) together in large numbers in sandy gullies or creek banks where they rest on branches or dead twigs in shade close to the ground. It is after rainfall events in spring and summer that the adults disperse and migrate and head down the coast. This allows them to take advantage of the new foliage of their larval food plant Secamone elliptica, commonly known as the corky milk vine that is found in monsoon forest and littoral rainforest. The larvae rely on the new shoots of the vine, because they are soft and easy
Flutterings of passion The adult male butterflies are strongly attracted to the PAs that are also found in the Parsonsia vine, known as common silkpod or monkey rope. The male will scratch the leaves to release the sap which they imbibe, and then they convert this complex organic compound into sex pheromones. Courtship for the Blue Tiger Butterflies includes extensive use of hair pencils that are located at the tip of the male’s abdomen. It is quite rare in nature to see the hair pencil display, however it involves the hair pencils being charged with perfume from scent pouches on the upside of the wing. The
male then erects these hair pencils and dusts the female with the pheromones. The Blue Tiger Butterfly will be migrating for approximately another week down the coast. As they have a long life-span for a butterfly, of up to six months, when the cooler months of April and May arrive, they can be seen migrating north again where they congregate in central and northern Queensland. It is important to plant both the corky milk vine and the Parsonsia vine together if you want to provide the most benefit to the Blue Tiger Butterfly.
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Well over 70,000 people have been cured of hepatitis C in the past four years – more than 2,000 of them in Northern NSW. One of these people is long-term Northern Rivers resident Catherine Davies (Not her real name) who contracted hepatitis C as a ‘young and impressionable’ 18-year-old. She caught the virus the same way that 90 per cent of people do – by sharing needles. That was more than 35 years ago. For most of that time, Catherine lived unaware she had the disease, despite feeling ‘ridiculously tired all the time’. It is normal for the virus to lie hidden like this, a ‘silent’ presence in the liver, even for decades. If left untreated,
it can lead to symptoms that might include fatigue, muscle aches, abdominal pain, nausea, diarrhoea, a rash and itching. Many people mistakenly attribute these symptoms to just getting older. As the virus progresses, it can lead to diseases such as cirrhosis. Liver failure and cancer are also possible outcomes. Catherine avoided this grim scenario by going on a program of antiviral drugs that are available to everyone with a Medicare card through the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. She was first diagnosed with hep C in the mid-90s. However, because her ‘viral load’ wasn’t too high, she declined the treatment that was available then – a six-month course of pills and
weekly injections of Interferon. People she knew had had a ‘terrible time’ on the Interferon program, she says.
New options Catherine continued to suffer from other minor illnesses and ‘niggly things’ that she thought might be hep C related and when offered the new antivirals two years ago she jumped at the chance. Within months she was clear of the virus. Her life has been transformed by the treatment, she says, with a return to physical wellbeing and an ever-increasing improvement in her energy levels and mental clarity. Catherine is one of 2,189 people from the Northern Rivers treated for the virus – up to September 2019. But
that leaves an estimated 3,000 who remain untreated. This statistic has led Hepatitis NSW, in collaboration with the Northern NSW Local Health District, to launch the TEST CURE LIVE campaign – to reach out to those people living with the virus, which used to be known only as hepatitis non-A non-B. ‘If you think there is any chance you may have contracted hepatitis C, even if it was decades ago, through needles, a blood transfusion or tattoos, I would urge you to ask your GP for a blood test to find out,’ says Krista Zohrab of the Lismore Liver Clinic. For more information visit www.testcurelive.com.au.
▶ Read more online in Echonetdaily: www.echo.net. au/hep-c-theres-a-cure.
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