Peacock Jewel (one synonym : Miletus meleagris Waterhouse,1903) LUCIINI, THECLINAE, LYCAENIDAE, PAPILIONOIDEA | (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Stella Crossley |
earlyt instar
(Photo: courtesy of Mark Hopkinson)
This Caterpillar initially is green with a white line down the back, white flecks on the body, and has dense hairs along the sides.
Later instars are brown. The Caterpillar feeds nocturnally on the upper surface of a leaf, and hides by day under a leaf. It can feed on :
The pupa is brown with dark spots, and has a length just over 1 cm. It is formed typically in a curled leaf in the debris near the base of a foodplant.
The male adults are an iridescent purple on top.
The female is brown with some mauve iridescence extending from the bases.
Underneath, they are pale brown with rows of orange spots outlined in black and iridescent green.
The butterflies have a wing span of about 3 cms.
The eggs are laid singly under a leaf of a foodplant.
The species occurs mainly in
and the subspecies euclides Miskin, 1889, is found in a small region of the north-east coast of Australia in
Further reading :
Michael F. Braby,
Butterflies of Australia,
CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne 2000, vol. 2, pp. 663-664.
Baron Cajetan Felder & Rudolf Felder,
Zoologischer Theil: Lepidoptera,
Reise der Osterreichischen Fregatte Novara,
Band 2, Abtheilung 2, Part 2 (1865), pp. 254-255, No. 300.
caterpillar | butterflies | Lepidoptera | moths | caterpillar |
(updated 29 September 2010, 2 May 2023)