and in GESNERIACEAE :

(Photo: courtesy of Wes Jenkinson)

The pupa is green with black markings, and has a length of about 0.7 cm. It is formed in amongst the fruit pods of the foodplant.

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

The adults are brown on top with several orange-edged black spots on the rear edge of each hind wing. The males have an iridescent blue sheen. The hindwings each have a thin tail. Underneath, the wings are white with a fawn subterminal arc, and two black spots near the front on each hind wing. Also, there is a row of black spots by the tail on each hind wing, two being surrounded with orange. The adult butterflies have a wingspan of about 2 cms.

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

The eggs are pale green, round, and flattened, with a diameter of about 0.5 mm. They are laid singly on flowers and pods of a foodplant.

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

The species occurs as various subspecies over much of south-east Asia, including:

and the subspecies australis (Couchman, 1962) occurs in

underside
(Photo: courtesy of Tony Bailey, Canungra, Queensland)

Further reading :

Michael F. Braby,
Butterflies of Australia, CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne 2000, vol. 2, pp. 843-844.

Jean Baptiste Godart,
Encyclopédie Méthodique,
Volume 9, Part 2 (1874), p. 608, No. 148, and also pp. 660-661, No. 148.

previous caterpillar

Australian butterflies

Australian Lepidoptera

Australian moths

next caterpillar

(updated 2 May 2009, 23 December 2023)