(Photo: courtesy of Ken Harris, Morwell Park, Victoria)

During daylight, the caterpillar hides in a curled up leaf. It grows to a length of about 3 centimetres.

(Photo: courtesy of Ken Harris, Morwell Park, Victoria)

The pupa is brown and spiky, with two white spots on each side. It is formed suspended from a cremaster, usually on some adjacent wall or fence. It has a length of about 2 cms.

(Photo: courtesy of Martin Purvis,
taken in Royal Botanic Gardemns, Sydney)

The adult butterflies have a wing span around 6 cms. They are orange and black with a big pale yellow patch on each forewing.

(Photo: courtesy of Bruce Anstee)

The undersides have a mottled brown pattern, and have a paler yellow patch and a blue eyespot under each forewing. The butterflies only have four legs.

(Photo: courtesy of Ian McMillan, Imbil, Queensland)

A real speed demon, these butterflies always seem to be in a hurry. When they land they flash their wings to display that bright yellow spot. An impressive sight. The adult butterflies sometimes congregate on the damaged trunks of Gum Trees ( Eucalyptus, MYRTACEAE ), to feed on the sap flow.

(Picture: courtesy of New Zealand Post)

They may be found in New Zealand and over the southern half of Australia including:

Further reading :

Michael F. Braby,
Butterflies of Australia, CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne 2000, vol. 2, pp. 582-583.

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