The caterpillars have been known to feed on a variety of plants, such as :

The caterpillar usually pupates between leaves or in the debris at the base of the foodplant.

pupa
(Photo: courtesy of Alice Ewing, Craigieburn, Victoria)

The pupa is fawn with dark brown speckles. It has a length of about 1 cm.

female
(Picture: courtesy of CSIRO Biodiversity)

The adult male and female butterflies look very similar. On top, they are basically dark brown, with a blue iridescent sheen. The females are rather bluer, and have a more rounded margin. The trailing edge of each hindwing has a pair of short tails. Beside one tail is a small black eyespot.

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

Underneath: the butterflies are fawn with faint bands of white-edged darker spots running across the wings. The hindwings each have two black and orange eyespots with black marks between them. The butterflies have a wingspan of about 3 cms.

(Photo: copyright of Brett and Marie Smith, Ellura Sanctuary, South Australia)

The eggs are round and flattened with a diameter of about 0.6 mm. They are pale green, and each covered by a white spiky polygonal network. The eggs are laid in clusters on a foodplant.

egg, magnified
(Photo: courtesy of Ken Walker, Ararat, Victoria)

The species has been found across most of mainland Australia, including

male, underside
(Specimen: courtesy of the Macleay Collection, Chau Chak Wing Museum, University of Sydney)

Further reading :

Michael F. Braby,
Butterflies of Australia,
CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne 2000, vol. 2, pp. 728-729.

William Chapman Hewitson,
Lycaenidae,
Illustrations of Diurnal Lepidoptera,
London, Volume 2 (1865), p. 54, No. 4, and also Plate 24, fig. 3.

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(updated 11 July 2004, 13 October 2025)