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Whites and Yellows - FAMILY PIERIDAE
- Common Grass Yellow
Most of the butterflies in this family are in medium size. They usually have white or yellow wings with black edges, and some have red and yellow patterns beneath their wings. They don't have tails on their hindwings. Their flight is rapid and they usually fly erratically amongst the plants.
Their caterpillars are usually green or reddish brown in colour. They are usually well camouflaged. They Their pupae are attached to a stem, or flat surface.
The family includes four subfamilies. Two occur in Australia, COLIADINAE and PIERINAE.
Subfamily COLIADINAE
- Lemon Migrant
- Catopsilia pomona, subfamily COLIADINAE, wingspan 70mm
- This is a common butterfly in Brisbane. In a sunny summer day, if you see a medium size lemon colour butterfly that flies pass by, it is most likely a Lemon Migrant. If you wait for a few seconds, there will be another Lemon Migrant flies pass, on the same path and heading to the same direction, south. They usually flies two to three meters above the ground. More information and pictures can be found in here.
- Common Grass Yellow
- Eurema hecabe, subfamily COLIADINAE, wingspan : 40mm
- Common Grass Yellow butterflies are medium in size, have yellow wings with black edge. They are easily found fluttering close to ground. They fly very quickly. We can see them in Brisbane in all seasons. The caterpillar is green in colour with yellow lines each side of body. The caterpillar feeds on Dwarf's Apple Breynia oblongifolia, pinnate Acacia and a weed Sesbania cannabina.
Subfamily PIERINAE
- Yellow Albatross, Common Albatross
- Appias paulina ega, subfamily PIERINAE, female, wingspan 60mm
- The male and female look quite different, with the male being mostly white but with yellow hindwings on the underside, while the female has broad dark black margins to the wings. Their flight is rapid and usually high off the ground. They are a well known migrant butterfly. During mid summer season, they can be seen flying across Brisbane, moving toward the south. More information and pictures please visit this page.
- Australian Gull, Caper Gull
- Cepora perimale scyllara, subfamily PIERINAE, male, wingspan 60mm
- Pictures were taken on White Hill top on late summer. At first we thought this butterfly was the Yellow Albatross. Both butterflies were yellow and white and colour with black wing margins. However, their wing margin patterns are quite different. The Caterpillar of Australian Gull is green with yellow dots and white hairs. They feed on wild Caper.
- Caper White
- Anaphaeis java, subfamily PIERINAE, male, wingspan 60mm
- Caper White is known one of the migratory species. Females are a bit larger than the male and have wider black borders on wings. Caterpillars feed exclusively on species of caper bushes Capparis. More information and pictures please click on here.
- Common Jezabel, Black Jezabel
- Delias nigrina, subfamily PIERINAE, pupa length 20mm, male wingspan 65mm
- The female and male Common Jezabel look a little bit different. The upper side of the males are white with black wingtips pattern while the female with larger area of black. On the underneath male and female look similar, there are yellow and red strips on black background. Common Jezabel is usually seen flying high around top of the trees. The caterpillar feeds on Mistletoes, a kind of semi-parasitic plants. We found two pupas of this butterfly but they were parasite by Chalcid Wasp.
- female upper female underneath
- Scarlet Jezebel, Northern Jezebel
- Delias argenthona, subfamily PIERINAE, male wingspan 65mm
- We found this Scarlet Jezebel hiding in shade during a hot mid summer afternoon in Karawatha Forest, otherwise they usually fly high near the tree top. The caterpillar feeds on Mistletoes.
