(Specimen: courtesy of the Macleay Museum, University of Sydney)

The Caterpillar pupates in its shelter.

The adult butterfly has dark brown body. The forewings are dark brown, each having a series of white spots. The hind wings are dark brown at the base fading to white on the trailing edge, and each has two dark brown spots. The underside is nearly identical to the upper surface. The wing span is about 4 cms.

The butterflies often rest with wings open flat in the shade under a leaf, with the head pointing down.

underside
(Specimen: courtesy of the Macleay Museum, University of Sydney)

The species is found as a series of subspecies all over south-east Asia, from India to the Solomons, including

and subspecies janetta Butler, 1870, is found along the coastal strip of north-east Australia in

Further reading :

Michael F. Braby,
Butterflies of Australia, CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne 2000, vol. 1, pp 73-74.

Buck Richardson,
Tropical Queensland Wildlife from Dusk to Dawn Science and Art,
LeapFrogOz, Kuranda, 2015, p. 232.

Caspar Stoll,
Papillons exotiques,
in Pieter Cramer:
De uitlandsche kapellen, voorkomende in de drie waereld,
Volume 4 (1782), p. 145, figs E,F, and also Plate 365, figs E,F.

G.A. Wood,
The life history of Tagiades japetus janetta Butler (Lepidoptera:Hesperiidae:Pyrginae),
Australian Entomological Magazine,
Volume 12, Part 1, p. 85.

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(updated 5 January 2010, 5 January 2024)