early instar
(Photo: courtesy of Wes Jenkinson)
Don Herbison-Evans (
donherbisonevans@yahoo.com )
&
Stella Crossley
This species is probably named after Agamemnon, the great but cursed king of of Ancient Greece.
The Caterpillar of this species initially is dark green or brown with a white patch and a humped thorax. Each segment has a short soft spine on each side, and the tail has a pair of spines.
Later instars become plain green with short soft black horns. The caterpillar everts a pair of soft yellow horns from behind the head when disturbed, and produces a pungent smell.
The Caterpillar feeds by day on the young leaves of various plants in ANNONACEAE, including the introduced:
and the Australian natives :
It has also been reported feeding on the foliage of:
The pupa is green with some brown markings, and is usually attached to a leaf by cremaster and girdle.
The adult butterflies have a wing span around 8 cms. The upper surfaces of the wings are black with rows of green spots, although in dead specimens, the green fades to yellow.
 upper surface |  underside |
The underside is brown with fewer spots, some of which are green, but others are various colours including black, red, white and blue.
The eggs are pale yellow and laid singly on the leaves of a foodplant.
Various subspecies of this insect are found across south-east Asia and the Pacific Islands, including :
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Further reading :
Michael F. Braby,
Butterflies of Australia,
CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne 2000, vol. 1, pp. 263-264.
 caterpillar |
 butterflies |
 caterpillars |
 moths |
 caterpillar |
(updated 2 December 2010)
