Doleschallia bisaltide australis Felder & Felder, 1867
Australian Rustic
or Leafwing
NYMPHALINAE, NYMPHALIDAE

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

(updated 25 January 2002)

The Caterpillars of this species feed on various species from the family ACANTHACEAE, including the Australian native plants :

  • Chinese Violet ( Asystasia gangetica ),
  • Pastel Flower ( Pseuderanthemum variable ), and
  • Christmas Pride ( Ruellia species ),

    as well as the introduced species :

  • Caricature Plant ( Graptophyllum pictum ),
  • Shooting Star ( Pseuderanthemum bicolor ), and
  • Bedding Conehead ( Strobilanthes isophyllus ).

    The Caterpillar is black with cream spots and blue and red markings. It is covered sparsely in branched black spines, and has a pair of hairy horns on its head. The Caterpillar feeds nocturnally, hiding by day in debris on the ground by its foodplant.

    The pupa is smooth and brown, with black markings, and a few yellow spots . It hangs by a silk cremaster from the foodplant.


    The adult butterflies have wings shaped so that the resting butterfly (with the wings closed over its back) looks like a leaf. There is a small tail to the hind wings. The upper surfaces of the wings are orange with a broad dark area around the wingtips. The undersides purplish-brown with a vein-like mark running across both the fore and hind wings.


    Solomon Islands 1982

    The eggs are pale yellow and spherical, and are laid in small clusters on young growth of a foodplant.

    The species is found across south-east Asia, from India to to Fiji, including :

  • Singapore, and
  • the Solomon Islands, as well as
  • the north-east coast of Australia.


    Further reading :

    Michael F. Braby, Butterflies of Australia, CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne 2000, vol. 2, pp. 563-564.


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