Two violet copper butterflies, a trapdoor spider and a matchstick grasshopper – some of NatureMapr’s recent discoveries around Canberra. Photos: Susan Wishart, John Wolf, David Rees, Robert Giddon.
Thirteen years ago, Dr Michael Mulvaney asked some friends to help look for rare plants.
An ACT Government plant specialist, Michael was struggling to get hold of comprehensive data.
His helpers emailed him photos of their finds. But after a programmer friend became too “brilliant”, Michael needed to sort the images.
The result: NatureMapr, an online database used to track their finds.
Since then, the program has uncovered hundreds of new species, tracked thousands of rare animals, and changed our understanding of many endangered and rare organisms in the Capital region and across Australia.
Michael has been most recently tracking a rare butterfly, the violet copper (Paralucia Crosbyi). A local resident on a walk in Namadgi National Park discovered the species by accident four years ago.
“It’s a new species to science. But why it was overlooked … is that it flies in winter,” Michael said.
“We would like people to look out for it because we don’t know its full range. It’s potentially quite restricted and it would be good to look out for it and manage for it.
“It prefers higher land between about 800 metres and 1100 metres. And its caterpillars just feed on one type of bush, blackthorn.”
Michael’s group is now looking for volunteers to track the elusive butterfly to help us learn more about the elusive bug.
The violet copper is an unusual species. Only active in winter – August is the best month to spot it – it only seems to live in the mountains around Canberra.
Almost everything we know about the insect has come from citizen scientists through NatureMapr.
A female violet copper on blackthorn – one of just 193 images ever taken of the species. Photo: David Rees.
Spot and photograph a violet copper and you’ll become one of 12 people to ever record it. In an age where everything is photographed, the copper is unique; there has been just 193 verified photographs of the species ever taken.
The first known picture of a violet copper was taken in 2021 by Susan Wishart, who mistook it for a common blue. But NatureMapr’s 400 volunteer moderators and experts quickly realised it was something new.
It’s not the community’s only accidental discovery.
This year, members have discovered a new species of miniature trapdoor spider, a population of endangered matchstick grasshopper, and even rediscovered a beetle last recorded in the 1930s.
Since its establishment, the group has recorded hundreds of thousands of animals and plants. It is a platform known for its accidental discoveries, appropriate given it was also somewhat of an accident.
After the group put its website online – just for Michael and his friends – members found they couldn’t stop the citizen scientists who wanted to take advantage of the platform.
Michael initially tried to stop their input, but realised what a powerful tool he had helped create. Now the platform makes important discoveries every week.
He said the project – more than a decade after its accidental invention – was still one of love for the volunteers, though its success was a double-edged sword.
“There’s over 800,000 sightings people have put on, and they have multiple photos. It’s a massive database,” he said.
“It works out that just people looking at our site costs about $120,000 a year. That’s funding we do get from the ACT Government, but we don’t get any funding to pay for [our programmers’] time.”
But despite the costs to volunteers, Michael’s passion for NatureMapr remains unbroken.
“It’s just a celebration of a common effort.”
Interested in photographing nature to better understand Canberra’s environment, sign up at NatureMapr.
