Hypolimnas misippus

Hypolimnas misippus (Linnaeus, 1764)
Diadem
(one synonym : Papilio diocippus Cramer, 1775)
NYMPHALINAE, NYMPHALIDAE, PAPILIONOIDEA

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

(Photo: courtesy of Simon Ong, Douglas-Daly, Northern Territory)

The Caterpillars of this species are black and covered in translucent branched hairs, except that the head is brown, and the head and thorax have brown branched hairs.

(Photo: courtesy of Simon Ong, Douglas-Daly, Northern Territory)

The caterpillars feed on a variety of plants, including:

Chinese Violet ( Asystasia gangetica, ACANTHACEAE ),

Pastel Flower ( Pseuderanthemum variable, ACANTHACEAE ),

Purslane ( Portulaca oleracea, PORTULACACEAE ),

Hibiscus ( Hibiscus rosa-sinensis, MALVACEAE ), and

Greater Plantain ( Plantago major, PLANTAGINACEAE ).

male, upper surface

female, upper surface

(Photos: courtesy of Jacopo Dercole)

The adult butterflies are dimorphic. The males and females have entirely different colours and patterns.

Christmas Island, 1987

French Territory of the Afars and the Issas, 1975

The males are black with large white patches surrounded by iridescent purple. Their wingspan extends to about 6 cms.

Cape Verde, 1982

Cuba, 1991

Burkina Faso, 1984

females, upper surface

The female butterflies are orange with wide black borders around the wings, and a white patch and a variable number of white spots in the black tips of the forewings. Their wingspan can extend to 7 cms.

male, underside
(Photo: courtesy of the Centre for Biodiversity Genomics, University of Guelph)

The undersides of the males are brown with a broad white band across each wing.

Cocos_(Keeling)_Islands, 1982

Ascension Island, 1987,

males, underside

The undersides of the females are similar to their upper surfaces.

female underside, drawing by Pieter Cramer, listed as Papilio diocippus,
Uitlandsche kapellen voorkomende in de drie waereld-deelen,
Amsterdam Baalde, Volume 1 (1775), Plate XXVIII, fig. C,
image courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library, digitized by Smithsonian Libraries.

The species has been found around the whole equatorial belt: Africa, south-east Asia, the Pacific Islands, North and South America, and the West Indies, including :

Taiwan, and

as well as the northern half of Australia, including

Western Australia

Northern Territory,

Queensland, and

New South Wales.

In the Americas and the West Indies, it is thought that the species was introduced, perhaps accidentally, from Africa in slave ships.