Alice Springs Desert Park
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A number of different species of butterflies are often seen flying around the desert park including the Caper White Butterfly (Belenois java teutonia).
The best place to find the Caper White Butterflies are around the plants of the caper family (Capparis spp). These include the Wild Passionfruit, also known as the Caper Bush (Capparis spinosa var. nummularia) and the Australian Native Orange (Capparis mitchellii). They can be seen laying their eggs on the host plants.
The caper plants that are hosts to the developing caterpillars grow through different instar stages. You can often see the cases of the instar, and then the developing chrysalis to emerge as the butterfly.
Caterpillar (Belenois java teutonia) and empty instar cases 
Belenois java teutonia instars and caterpillars 
Belenois java teutonia caterpillar in the fruit husk of the Wild Passionfruit 
Belenois java teutonia instars husks and cases 
Caterpillars, instars of the Caper White Butterfly (Belenois java teutonia) on a Caper Bush (Capparis spinosa var. nummularia) denuded of leaves.
Check out our Fauna section on the Caper White Butterfly (Belenois java teutonia).
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- Scientific classification
- Kingdom: Animalia
- Phylum: Arthropoda
- Class: Insecta
- Order: Lepidoptera
- Family: Pieridae
- Genus: Belenois
- Species: B. java
- Binomial name: Belenois java
- Subspecies:
- B. j. java (Indonesia)
- B. j. savuana (Savu)
- B. j. teutonia (Australia)
- B. j. ina (Indonesia)
- B. j. peristhene (Melanesia)
- B. j. picata (Melanesia)
- B. j. micronesia (Fiji)
