Belenois java
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~50%
Belenois java, the caper white or common white, is a small butterfly of the family Pieridae found in Australia, Indonesia, and Melanesia. It is highly migratory and is often confused with the cabbage white (Pieris rapae).
The upper surface of the male's wings are white with a broad black apical patch, the hindwing has a black terminal border. On both wings the black area encloses white dots. The under surface of the hindwing is almost exclusively black except for white and yellow patches between the veins. The wingspan on the male is 5 cm whereas the female's wingspan is larger at 6 cm. The female can vary dramatically including a pale form which looks strikingly similar to the male. The upper surface of the wings is white and have a much broader black margin. The body of both is olive green to dark brown.
The first instar of this species is pale yellow sparsely covered in long hairs. The later instars of this species are dark brownish-green with white and yellow raised spots. The head has a V-shaped white mark and is shiny black. There are two lines of hair on the side of the caterpillar's 3-cm body in its later stages. The pupa is white... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Grampians National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 2 | Bali Barat National Park | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 3 | Cape Range | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 4 | Komodo National Park | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 5 | Ningaloo Marine Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 6 | Blue Mountains National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 7 | Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 8 | Lamington National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 9 | Great Otway National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 10 | Kosciuszko National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 11 | Springbrook National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 12 | Royal National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Caper White sighting in Great Otway National Park on a given day, based on 19 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 102nd most-seen of the 418 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 50%, if each day is a fresh chance.
November
In that month about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Caper White in Great Otway National Park on a given day, against under 5% in January–February, April and June–September, the lowest months.
Between 1 and 4 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Caper White sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
9th of 12
Of the 12 parks where we can rate Caper White sightings, Great Otway National Park ranks 9th at about 10%. The best odds are in Grampians National Park (Australia, about 30%), Bali Barat National Park (Indonesia, about 30%) and Cape Range (Australia, about 20%).
Same family: Pieridae
The closest relatives of the Caper White that you can see in Great Otway National Park (family Pieridae, Whites, Yellows, and Sulphurs) are Imperial Jezebel (about 30%), Small White (about 20%) and Red-Spotted Jezebel (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Caper White is recorded against all the insects logged in Great Otway National Park (19 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
