later instar
(Photo: courtesy of Wes Jenkinson)

The shoots of the foodplant become very deformed where the caterpillar has been feeding.

deformed foodplant
(Photo: courtesy of Wes Jenkinson)

The pupa is mottled brown with a length of about 0.8 cm.

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

The male adults are pale blue on top, with a black spot and a tail at the tornus of each hind wing.

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

The females are brown with a shiny blue patch on each wing. They also have a black spot and tail at the tornus of each hindwing, and arcs of pale carets along the hindwing margins.

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

Underneath, they are fawn with irregular dark arcs edged in white. The hindwings each have one large and one small black spot edged in orange by the tornus. The butterflies have a wing span of about 2.5 cms.

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

The eggs are egg-shaped and pale green. They are laid singly on or inside flower-buds of a foodplant.

egg, magnified
(Photo: courtesy of Wes Jenkinson)

The butterflies are similar in colour to those of Catochrysops amasea, but have more angular wings.

mating pair
(Photo: courtesy of Wes Jenkinson)

The species occurs as various races from India across Asia to the Solomons. The race platissa occurs in Queensland.

Further reading :

Michael F. Braby,
Butterflies of Australia, CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne 2000, vol. 2, pp. 828-829.

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(updated 24 May 2011)