Newbie

Oh dear! I promised myself I wouldn't do another insect macro today.

But I've never seen this butterfly in my garden before - actually amend that, I've never ever seen this butterfly before anywhere.

So I was excited.

I think it's extremely beautiful, and I was lucky enough to watch a pair of them fly away in slow upward spirals. Aaaaah.

It's the pale form of a caper white (Belenois java teutonia) - and there's a lot of interesting detail, so if you want to read on, please do. If you don't - obviously stop here.

Interesting aspects: This butterfly has its origins in Africa where a large number of morphologically similar species occur. The butterfly belongs in the Anaphaeis subgeneric group, the name which this butterfly used to be known as. This subgroup contains members that undertake major mass migrations. In Africa the major member is Belenois(Anaphaeis) aurota which annually undertakes migrations during summer-autumn in a northeast direction. This butterfly has historically made its way to India, and from there probably made its way via Indonesia to Australia where it is now represented by B. java.

The male and female butterflies can occur in either a pale or dark colour form, and both forms can occur together in the one population at the same time, and both forms reach South Australia during migrations from northern areas of Australia. The different colour forms are most obvious in the females, whereby the female pale form is similar to the male, while the female dark form has variable amounts of black or dark brown colouration on the outer half of the wings, and the inner half of the underside of the forewing is bright yellowish orange. The darker forms seem to be a product of a cool breeding period, particularly during winter, which causes a lengthening of the brood period (particularly the pupation period) resulting in increased melanin (black) pigment.

It is a strong migrant, and every spring, numbers of these butterflies will fly south from northern breeding grounds helped by the hot northerly winds that occur at that time. They sometimes fly over the sea reaching islands adjacent to Australia, although they have yet to make it to New Zealand. Females are both gravid and fertile during these migrations and will stop to lay eggs on hostplants if they happen upon them. Caper Whites are easily distinguished from the former (in South Australia) by the black margins to the wings, and the yellow-orange markings beneath.

If you've read down this far, you'll certainly be interested enough to have a look in large.