Biodiversity
Page 288
Common threats to ecological values - Torrens Is and Biodiversity Park
Adriana quadripartita
(Rare Bitterbush) and the butterfly
Theclinesthes
albocincta
(Bitter-bush blue)
A. quadripartita
(Rare Bitterbush)
Adriana quadripartita
(Rare Bitterbush), also known as
A. klotzschii
has been
identified as Uncommon in the Southern Lofty Region.
In 2008, Conservation Volunteers Australia mapped locations of
A.quadripartita
on Torrens Island. Previously a common plant along the Adelaide metropolitan
coastline,
A.quadripartita
is presently under threat in Adelaide due to the loss of
habitat to agriculture and urbanisation and particularly from coastal housing
developments.
A.quadripartita
has received considerable attention as the host plant of the
butterfly
Theclinesthes albocincta
(Bitter-bush Blue). The larvae of
T.albocincta
exist solely on
A. quadripartita (Blue Bitter-bush)
and the butterfly only occurs in
coastal regions of South Australia.
T. albocincta
does not have a national
conservation status and is not considered threatened on a large scale.
However, municipal populations may be threatened in South Australia by the
loss of
A. quadripartita
.
T. albocincta
has been reduced to two isolated
populations, one at Torrens Island and one at Normanville (Donato
Environmental Services, Nov 2009).
An additional threat to
T. albocincta
is the excessive use of groundwater for
commercial purposes and the continuing worldwide slow rise in sea level due to
global warming
(Donato Environmental Services, Nov 2009).
There have been
populations of
T.albocincta
sighted within the Fleurieu Peninsula
region associated with patches of remnant
A.quadripartita
at Torrens Island, Port
Gawler and Newland Head. In March 2004, there was
A.quadripartita
sighted at
Biodiversity Park on Lefevre Peninsula.
It has been concluded through genetic
analysis that the populations of both
A.quadripartita
and
T.albocincta
suffer from
reduced genetic diversity because of their size and isolation, and the Newland Head
population is nearly extinct
(Donato Environmental Services, Nov 2009).
(Source: South Australia Butterflies data sheet)
