Black and White Ringlet SATYRINAE, NYMPHALIDAE, PAPILIONOIDEA | (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Stella Crossley |
(Photo: courtesy of CSIRO/BIO Photography Group,
Centre for Biodiversity Genomics,
University of Guelph)
The Caterpillar of this species is dark green with a forked tail, and a brown head with two orange horns. It grows to a length of about 1.5 cms. It has been found feeding on
Pupation occurs on the foodplant. The pupa hangs head down, suspended by a cremaster. The pupa is brown with dark markings, and has ridges along the back and on the head. Its length is about 1 cm.
The adult butterflies have black forewings each with a fuzzy white patch. The hindwings are white with a black border, and a pair of eyespots by the tornus. Underneath, they are similar, except the hindwings each have three eyespots. The wingspan is about 3 cms.
This species inhabits the rain forests of
and northern Australia in
Further reading :
Michael F. Braby,
Butterflies of Australia,
CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne 2000, vol. 2, pp. 480-481.
Gustavus Athol Waterhouse & George Lyell,
The Butterflies of Australia,
Angus & Robertson, 1914, Sydney, p. 34, No. 29a, and also
Plate 12, Figs. 148, 149.
G.A. Wood,
The life history of Hypocysta angustata angustata Waterhouse and Lyell and
Hypocysta irius (Fabricius)(Lepidoptera:Nymphalidae:Satyrinae),
Australian Entomological Magazine,
Volume 14 (1988), p. 6.
caterpillar | butterflies | Lepidoptera | moths | caterpillar |
(updated 20 March 2004, 8 December 2013, 19 June 2020)