THE CAPER BUTTERFLY. 103 



dusk and dawn, a somewhat unusual time. The butter- 

 fly is on the wing throughout the summer months, but 

 the main body appear in November, and again in January 

 and Februar3^" With regard to the flights of these butter- 

 flies, as above alluded to, it may be mentioned that in 

 parts of South Queensland clouds which took the whole 

 day in passing a given point have frequently been noticed, 

 thus indicating the enormous numbers which at the one 

 time must be on the wing. In Queensland there are no 

 less than sixteen species of the genus Capparis^ thus it 

 may be easily surmised that the natural food-plants of 

 these caterpillars are ample for all purposes. 



Prevention and Remedies. 



Capparis spinosa, the Caper of commerce, will, if left 

 alone by the caterpillars, thrive well near Melbourne, and 

 in many other parts of the colony probably it will do 

 better. About 25 years since the late Baron von 

 Mueller, who was always to the fore in his endeavours to 

 introduce plants of economic value, imported a number of 

 plants of the common Caper. These plants made ad- 

 mirable growth, and were thriving splendidly, with the 

 promise of a fair crop, when one morning 1 discovered 

 that the plants, every one of them, had been quite stripped 

 of their leaves, and in many cases of their leaf-stalks and 

 fruit-stalks too, and, upon examining the plants, I found 

 swarms of the fully-gorged caterpillars, some still adher- 

 ing to the plants, whilst others had dropped off, and were 

 crawling about the ground in the near vicinity of the 

 plants. The matter was reported to the Baron, wdio at 

 this time was Director of the Botanic Gardens, and I will 

 never forget his chagrin over the partial destruction of 

 his favorite plants, which he had frequently tended with 

 his own hands. At this time there were no spray pumps 

 in Victoria, or, I may say, in Australia, so we had to be 

 content with using an ordinary garden syringe and a mix- 

 ture of soapsuds ; Paris Green, London Purple, and the like 

 being at this time quite unknown here, at least as a material 



