Some observations and photos on Club's November outing by Deb and Mike Ford

This small grasshopper was photographed on a citrus bush outside Jim and Judy’s home at Spinach Creek.  Michael Jeffries has commented that it is too young to be able to identify with any degree of certainty, other than it is a member of the Acrididae family.

“The drive from Toowoomba, via Flagstone Creek, was accompanied by a ‘snow storm’ of Caper White butterflies (Belenois java).  On arrival at our destination we found a cloud of these insects surrounding a completely defoliated tree – probably Capparis arborea – on which many pupae were visible on the underside of the bare branches.  Albert Orr and Robert Kitching, on p. 155 of their book, The Butterflies of Australia, inform the reader that ‘males flutter around groups of pupae and mate with females soon after they emerge’.  This behaviour is probably what we were witnessing.”

I have attached a shot of the pupae on the underside of the branches.

There is also an image of the Caper White, feeding from a Bottle Brush Tree, possibly  Melaleuca viminalis (Weeping Red Bottlebrush).