So, for more than a week, a butterfly has been flitting in and out of my yard and, despite all my efforts, I was unable to get a shot – until several days ago, and then just the one.This was enough to identify it as a male Caper White Butterfly.

I learned that the male and female migrate separately, and I kept my eyes peeled. A few days ago, I spotted a female but briefly. Yesterday, I got a few shots in the early morning, left hoping for superior ones in coming days. As you can see, the female has wider black margins on their uppers than the male. Unlike a lot of butterflies, these ones have their amazing patterns on the underside.

Later in the day, the female visited again, lingering a little before meeting up with the male and flitting out of range.

The Australian Museum website says…

“An interesting feature of this species is that it regularly migrates to areas where there are no food plants for its caterpillars. It is not understood why this behaviour has evolved.”

I didn’t know what a caper bush or creeper looks like. The caterpillars need them. I Googled and discovered a pretty flowering plant, and – of course – capers. Derrr, what a dill I am. I’ve cooked with capers in the dim past. Is this another of those things I’ve forgotten? Because, surely, I looked this up last time they visited, some years back!

Thanks for looking, and do take care.

🙂

P.S. Turns out I haven’t seen this particular butterfly here before. From an old post (I’m a bad bad blogger), I see I spotted one whilst camping. With limited internet, I probably hadn’t made the connection between its name and capers. I probably thought it was named after the way it capered about. LOL.