Caterpillars have also been found on members of the Sedge family ( CYPERACEAE ), including :

The Caterpillae is cylindrical, and green with white spots. It has two dark reddish hairy horns on its head, and a pair of horns on its tail. The Caterpillars feed in daylight near a leaf tip, often in a small group. They rest on the underside of a leaf along a vein.

Caterpillar preparing to pupate
(Photo: courtesy of Nick Monaghan, Tewantin, Queensland)

The pupa is smooth and green. It hangs by a silk cremaster from the foodplant. Its length is about 2 cms.

pupa

The adult has two forms: the winter (dry) season form is dark brown with an orange patch containing double eyespot near the tip of each forewing. These is usually a single eyespot on the top of each hindwing. Each wing has a recurved margin. The wingspan is about 7 cms.

winter form
(Specimen: courtesy of the Macleay Museum, University of Sydney)

The summer (wet) season form is paler.

summer form
oops: a bird must have snapped at a bit of its wing!
(Specimen: courtesy of the Macleay Museum, University of Sydney)

The underside (of both forms) is variable: generally a cryptic brown with a number of small eyespots.

(Photo: courtesy of Nick Monaghan, Tewantin, Queensland)

The eggs are spherical and pale yellow, and have a diameter of about 1 mm. They are laid at dusk in groups of one to five on the underside of young foodplant leaves.

Races of this species are found over much of the world, for example :

The race found in Australia is bankia which occurs in:

Cape Verde Islands, 1982.

Further reading :

Michael F. Braby,
Butterflies of Australia, CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne 2000, vol. 2, pp. 468-469.

previous caterpillar

Australian butterflies

Australian caterpillars

Australian moths

next caterpillar