Vindula arsinoe

Vindula arsinoe (Cramer, 1777)
The Cruiser
HELICONIINAE, NYMPHALIDAE, PAPILIONOIDEA

Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley

Vindula arsinoe
(Specimen courtesy: Butterfly House, Coffs Harbour)

This Caterpillar is cylindrical, and black with white patches on the sides of each segment. It has pairs of black and white tentacles on each segment. It feeds on various Australian native Passion vines (PASSIFLORACEAE) including :

Australian Native Passionfruit ( Passiflora aurantia ),

Golden Passionflower ( Passiflora aurantioides ), and

Lacewing Vine ( Adenia heterophylla ).

The Caterpillar grows to a length of about 4 cms.

(Specimen courtesy: Butterfly House, Coffs Harbour)

The pupa is green or brown, with silvery spots, and has 3 pairs of wing like extensions. It hangs by a silk cremaster from a stem of the foodplant, and has a length of about 3 cms.

Male
(Photo: courtesy of Klaus Rusch)

The adult male is brown with a black pattern of lines and dots. There is a small eyespot on the rear of each hindwing. The underside is similar with white patches on the forewing.

Female
(Specimen courtesy: Butterfly House, Coffs Harbour)

The female is similar, and has a large dark area along the margin of each forewing containing a pattern of white spots and crescents. The butterflies have a wingspan up to 8 cms.

(Specimen courtesy: Butterfly House, Coffs Harbour)

The eggs of this species are laid in a sparsely on the stem or tendril of a foodplant. They are barrel-shaped and ribbed, varying from off-white to brown. They have a height of about 1.5 mm.

( Australia Post, 2004)

The species is found across south-east Asia to the south-west Pacific, including

Malaysia,

New Guinea,

Solomons,

and the subspecies ada (Butler, 1874) occurs in Australia in

Queensland.

female underside
(Photo: courtesy of Buck Richardson Kuranda, Queensland)

The species is featured at the Coffs Harbour Butterfly House. Butterflies of this species may be purchased for release at weddings etc.

male underside, drawing by Pieter Cramer, listed as Papilio arsinoe,
Uitlandsche kapellen voorkomende in de drie waereld-deelen,
Amsterdam Baalde, Volume 2 (1777), Plate CLX, fig. C,
Image courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library, digitized by Smithsonian Libraries.