Hypolimnas alimena

Hypolimnas alimena (Linnaeus, 1758)
Blue-banded Eggfly
(erroneously: Hipolimnas alimena)
NYMPHALINAE, NYMPHALIDAE, PAPILIONOIDEA

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

Hypolimnas alimena
(Photo: courtesy of Martin Purvis)

These Caterpillars are initially cream and are very hairy. Later they become black with black branched hairs. Their heads are dark brown and have a pair of long branched spines. The Caterpillars feed on various species from the plant family ACANTHACEAE, including

Love Flower ( Pseuderanthemum variabile ),

Coromandel ( Asystasia gangetica ), and

Caricature Plant ( Graptophyllum pictum ).

The Caterpillars hide by day in ground debris, and feed at night. The are voracious, consuming whole plants and then searching for more.

The pupa is dark brown with white patches and rows of sharp spines. It is suspended head down froma cremaster in a sheltered spot.

underside
(Photo: courtesy of Graeme Cocks, Townsville, Queensland)

The adult male butterflies are black on top, with a blue band across each wing, and a double row of subterminal pale spots. Underneath, the males are brown with a smoky pale band across each wing, and a subtermial row of pale spots, and pale edges.

( Australia Post, 2004)

The females have an extra white flash or row of white spots across the tip of each forewing. The undersides of the females are similar to their upper surfaces.

This species is found across south-east Asia, including :

India,

New Zealand,

Sulawesi,

and two subspecies are found in Australia :

lamina Fruhstorfer, 1903, along the north-east coast of
Queensland,

darwinensis Waterhouse & Lyell, 1914, in the
Northern Territory, and

New South Wales.

This butterfly is featured at Coffs Harbour Butterfly House.

Further reading :

Michael F. Braby,
Butterflies of Australia, CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne 2000, vol. 2, pp. 565-566.

Dave St Henry,
Blue-banded Eggfly,
Butterflies and Other Invertebrates Club,
Metamorphosis Australia,
Issue 61 (June 2011), p. 33.