Eurema laeta

Eurema laeta (Boisduval, 1836)
Spotless or Line Grass-yellow
(previously known as Terias laeta)
COLIADINAE, PIERIDAE, PAPILIONOIDEA

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

The Caterpillar of this species is green with a darker green line along the back, and yellow lines along each side. When resting, it lies along the midrib of a leaflet. It feeds on various plants in CAESALPINIACEAE including

Fish-bone Cassia ( Chamaecrista mimosoides ), and

Mogdad Coffee ( Senna occidentalis ).

The Caterpillar grows to a length of about 3 cms. The pupa is green and attached to a twig of the foodplant with a cremaster and girdle.

(Specimen: courtesy of the The Australian Museum)

The upper surfaces of the wings of the adult butterflies are yellow with black edges. The undersides are pale orange with brown markings, and with a large yellow oval under each forewing. The butterfly has a wingspan of about 3 cms.

underside, dry season form
(Specimen: courtesy of the The Australian Museum)

The species occurs as various subspecies across Asia, including

and in the tropical north of Australia in

Northern Territory, and

Queensland,
as two different forms:

sana (Butler, 1877) the wet season form (yellow underneath), and

lineata (Miskin, 1889) the dry season form (brown underneath).

Further reading :

Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Dechauffour de Boisduval,
Species Général des Lépidoptéres,
Histoire naturelle des insectes,
Volume 1 (1836), pp. 674-675, No 56.

Michael F. Braby,
Butterflies of Australia, CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne 2000, vol. 1, pp. 299-301.

Buck Richardson,
Tropical Queensland Wildlife from Dusk to Dawn Science and Art,
LeapFrogOz, Kuranda, 2015, p. 225.

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(updated 9 July 2009, 29 December 2023)