A Pretty Visitor

Look who visited my garden this afternoon:

I'm pretty sure this beautiful creature is a Lesser Wanderer butterfly. (Edited to say that, after consulting the butterfly book I bought from the museum, I think I've made a mistake. It's more like an Australian Painted Lady.) It flitted about these flowers for about half an hour or so and didn't seem to mind having its photo taken at all.

I was thrilled to have it come in. I always get myriads of Cabbage White butterflies, who lay their eggs on my nasturtiums (with my blessing), but hardly any other species. Very occasionally, a small native Skipper butterfly visits. Sadly, I haven't seen any Skippers for a year or more.
I've been doing a little bit of research on butterflies for work and I've found out that some butterflies are losing their habitat because of land clearing around Perth, so I've armed myself with a copy of Bring Back The Butterflies from the WA Museum and I'm going to see if I can grow plants that butterfly larvae like to feed on. Hopefully, I'll be able to encourage a more diverse range of butterflies back into my neighbourhood. Wish me luck!