The caterpillar grows to a length of about 3 cms.

(Photo: courtesy of Wes Jenkinson)

The pupa is green with a yellow line along each side, and has a pointed head with a pink tip. Sometimes the pupa has reddish speckles. The pupa is attached to a twig of the foodplant with a cremaster and girdle. The length of the pupa is about 1.5 cms.

(Specimen: courtesy of the The Australian Museum)

The upper surfaces of the wings of the adult butterflies are yellow with black borders. Each forewing tip has narrow broken pink edges.

underside
(Specimen: courtesy of the The Australian Museum)

The undersides are yellow with sparse brown marks, and a rust coloured edge. The butterflies have a wingspan of about 4 cms.

mating pair
(Photo: courtesy of Buck Richardson, Kuranda, Queensland)

The eggs are spindle-shaped and pale yellow, with fine logitudinal ribs. The eggs are about 1.5 mm high. They are laid singly on the upper surface of a leaf of a foodplant.

egg, magnified
(Photo: courtesy of Wes Jenkinson)

The species occurs as various subspecies in Africa and Asia, including :

as well australis (Wallace, 1867) in the north and east of Australia, including:

Lesotho, 1984

Further reading :

Michael F. Braby,
Butterflies of Australia,
CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne 2000, vol. 1, pp. 297-299.

Wesley Jenkinson,
Life history notes on the No-brand Grass Yellow, Eurema brigitta australis (Stoll, 1780) Lepidoptera: Pieridae,
Butterflies and Other Invertebrates Club,
Metamorphosis Australia,
Issue 68 (March 2013), pp. 21-23.

Caspar Stoll,
Papillons exotiques,
in Pieter Cramer:
De uitlandsche kapellen, voorkomende in de drie waereld,
Volume 4 (1782), p. 82, figs. B, C, and also Plate 331, figs. B, C.

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(updated 25 July 2013, 29 December 2023)