Before pupating it goes for a walkabout for several days, and then pupates in a shelter of leaves joined with silk.

(Photo: courtesy of CSIRO/BIO Photography Group, Centre for Biodiversity Genomics, University of Guelph)

The adult butterfly is dark brown with a series of white and yellow patches on each fore wing. The hind wings each have an indistinct yellow patch. Underneath, the they are orange, with the same white spots as on the upper surface, but with a large rounded triangular dark brown patch under each fore wing, and one or more small white spots under each hind wing. The wing span is about 3 cms.

(Photo: courtesy of Jenny Holmes, Great Western, Victoria )

The species is thought to occur as three main subspecies :

variously in

egg, magnified
(Photo: courtesy of Ken Walker, Brisbane, Queensland)

The eggs are dome shaped with minute ribs, with a diameter of about 1 mm. The eggs are initially white, turning pink as hatching approaches. They are laid singly on a leaf of a foodplant.

Further reading :

Michael F. Braby,
Butterflies of Australia,
CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne 2000, vol. 1, pp 99-100.

Johann Gottlieb Otto Tepper,
The Papilionidae of South Australia,
Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia,
Volume 4 (1882), p. 33, and also Plate 2, fig. 6.

Gustavus Athol Waterhouse,
Australian Hesperiidae. VIII. Descriptions of new forms,
Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales,
Volume 63 (1938), p. 451.

Gustavus Athol Waterhouse, & George Lyell,
The Butterflies of Australia,
Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1914, p. 177, figs 661, 739.

previous caterpillar

Australian butterflies

Australian Lepidoptera

Australian moths

next caterpillar

(updated 6 July 2010, 5 January 2024)