MORPHOLOGY
External characteristics
Male
Forewings: The forewing underside has a narrow black coloured submarginal band and the yellow apical markings are pale (Yata and Morishita, 1979). Hindwings The hindwing underside is yellow coloured and there is a marginal row of reddish orange spots. The veins are not darkened (Yata and Morishita, 1979).
Female
The upper side wing surface is pearly white coloured, with the adjacent parts of the wing as well as the body in a faint greenish tinge. The forewing has the costal margin dusky and there is a large subtriangular black-ish brown coloured apical patch, which reaches from the middle of the costa to the outer angle. The hindwing has a black-ish brown coloured border, which does not reach the anal angle. The forewing underside is similar to the upper side, has a ochre-yellow coloured base and a small cinnabar-red coloured elongated patch. The hindwings are entirely black-brown coloured, with the base tinged with an ochreous-yellow colour (Wallace, 1867).
Subspecies and variation
Two subspecies are described (D'Abrera, 1982; Yata and Morishita, 1979). Ssp. calliparga is a larger subspecies and has a darker underside wing surface colouration than the nominate species, but the upper side wing surface is in the males with black margins reduced and increased in the yellow apical on the forewing (D'Abrera, 1982).