Eurema herla (W.S.Macleay, 1826)
Pink or Macleay's Grass-yellow
 (previously known as Pieris herla)
COLIADINAE,   PIERIDAE,   PAPILIONOIDEA
 
Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley

The Caterpillars of this species feed on :

  • Fish-bone Cassia ( Chamaecrista mimosoides, CAESALPINIACEAE ).

    Eurema herla
    (Photo: courtesy of CSIRO/BIO Photography Group, Centre for Biodiversity Genomics, University of Guelph))

    The adults are mainly yellow, with a smoothly rounded black area at the upperside of the tips of each forewing, and dark dots at the ends of the veins at the margin of the upper side of the hindwings.

    Eurema herla
    underside
    (Photo: courtesy of the Photography Group, Centre for Biodiversity Genomics, University of Guelph)

    Underneath, the butterflies have yellow forewings, and orange hindwings that have some indistinct darker bands. The wing span is about 3 cms.

    This species has been found mostly in the north and east of Australia, but also in

  • Western Australia,
  • Northern Territory,
  • Queensland,
  • New South Wales,
  • Australian Capital Territory,
  • Victoria, and
  • South Australia.

    Further reading :

    Michael F. Braby,
    Butterflies of Australia, CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne 2000, vol. 1, pp. 301-302.

    William Sharp Macleay,
    Annulosa,
    in Philip Parker King :
    Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia,
    Volume 2 (1826), Appendix B, pp. 460-461, No. 144.

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    (updated 1 January 2012, 27 November 2025)