The young Caterpillars feed openly in the daytime, skeletonising the leaves. Later instars hide in a hollow twig or curled leaf by day, and feed nocturnally, eating large pieces of the leaves. The foodplants include :

     
(Photos: courtesy of Bob Miller and Ian Hill)

The pupa is speckled brown and formed in a hollow twig or curled leaf.

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

The adult male butterflies on top are purple with the upper wings edged in black. Underneath they are pale brown with orange markings outlined in metallic green.

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

The females are brown with an orange patch on top.

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

Underneath they are pale brown with orange markings outlined in metallic green. The butterflies have a wingspan of about 4 cms.

This species is found on

and in Australia it is found as two subspecies :

Further reading :

Michael F. Braby,
Butterflies of Australia, CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne 2000, vol. 2, pp. 653-654.

P.R. Samson,
The early history of Hypochrysops elgneri barnardi Waterhouse and H. hippuris nebulosis Sands (LEPIDOPTERA: LYCAENIDAE),
The Australian Entomologist, Vol. 29, Pt. 3 (September 2002), pp. 103-106.

Gustavus Athol Waterhouse & George Lyell,
New and Rare Australian Butterflies of the Genus Miletus,
Victorian Naturalist,
Volume 26 (1909), pp. 114-115.

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(updated 23 March 2010, 20 July 2020)