Invertebrates

The Richmond birdwing butterfly (Ornithoptera richmondia) is the largest subtropical Australian butterfly. It was once abundant from Maryborough in southern Queensland to Grafton in northern NSW, breeding in rainforest habitat wherever the food plants were plentiful. Much of this land was eagerly sought after for grazing and subtropical agriculture due to its rich soils.
In 1870 the butterfly was reported in newspapers as occurring in the thousands on the streets of Brisbane, but by 1926 natural history enthusiasts noticed a massive decline in the south, west and east of the city.

Australia has more than 1600 species of native bees, among which some of the largest are the two groups of carpenter bees: Xylocopa (Koptortosoma) and Xylocopa (Lestis). Species in the subgenus Lestis are metallic green in colour, while those in the subgenus Koptortosoma are coloured quite differently, as described below.

The Boggomoss snail (Adclarkia dawsonensis), also known as the Dawson Valley snail, is an exceptionally rare Queensland endemic species with only two known populations existing in the Dawson Valley near Taroom. One of these populations occurs on a Boggomoss (aquifer-fed moist environment) on Mt Rose Station and the other as a series of sub-populations in the riparian environments of the Dawson River.