MORPHOLOGY
External characteristics
Male
Forewings: The forewing basal area has a grey-ish tone, more than half of the wing is black coloured. There are small white subapical dots. The underside wing surface has yellow spots (Pequin, 2021). Hindwings The hindwing has a sharply defined black border and it narrows to a point psoteriorly. There are white marginal spots. The hindwing underside has a median band and is suffused with black in front of the apex of the cell. The ground-colour of the hindwing underside has a distinct purple tone (Pequin, 2021).
Female
The females generally have a different underside wing surface than the males, by being darker with broader margins on both wings (D'Abrera, 1982). The forewing upper side has is black for the greater part. The white area has a yellowish tone, and is so much suffused with black proximally that it is reduced to a triangular patch extending from the hind margin to the cell. In some female specimen, the white patch is shaded all over with black and is more distinctly yellow. The forewing underside has also a white area and is less suffused with black than the upper side. Four pale yellow dots are present. The hindwing has a slight yellow tone. There is a small yellowish subcostal spot and five white spots on the subapical side (Pequin, 2021).
Subspecies and variation
Six subspecies are described. Ssp. citrona and ssp. fascelis have a yellow coloured upper side wing surface (Pequin, 2021).