pupae
(Photo: courtesy of Mark Hopkinson)

The pupa is brown and rough, with patches of white and dark brown. Its length is about 1 cm. When disturbed, the pupa emits clicking noises.

male and female
(Photo: courtesy of Yusuke Takanami & Yasuo Seki)

The male adult butterflies are black with a blue area on each hindwing. The females are dark brown with a white area on each hindwing. Both sexes have a tail on each hindwing which is as long as the wing itself.

male, underside
(Photo: courtesy of Mark Hopkinson)

Underneath, wings are fawn with broad brown bands under the forewings, and brown dashes under the hindwings. The females are paler underneath. There is a prominent black spot at the base of each tail, both on top and underneath for both sexes. There is another black spot under the base of each hindwing. The wingspan is about 3 cms.

male and female undersides
(Photo: courtesy of Yusuke Takanami & Yasuo Seki)

The eggs are white, round and flattened. Their diameter is about 0.8 mm. They are laid singly at the base of fruits of a foodplant.

The species is found across south-east Asias, including :

and the subspecies isabella (Felder, 1860) is found on the tropical north-east coast of Australia in

Further reading :

Michael F. Braby,
Butterflies of Australia,
CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne 2000, vol. 2, pp. 747-748.

Johan Christian Fabricius,
Glossata, Hesperia,
Entomologia systematica emendata et aucta,
Volume 3, Part 1 (1793), pp. 282-283, No. 85.

Baron Cajetan von Felder,
Lepidopterorum Amboienensium species novae diagnosibus,
Sitzungsberichte der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien,
Volume 40, Series 11 (1860), p. 451, No. 10.

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(updated 28 September 2010, 30 October 2013, 27 January 2014, 19 August 2017, 3 July 2020)