MORPHOLOGY
External characteristics
Male
Forewings: Both sexes have a single or a pair of streaks in the cell on the forewing upper side (Yata and Morishita, 1979).
Female
The hindwing upper side has a conspicuous black coloured streak in the cell (Yata and Morishita, 1979).
Subspecies and variation
Two subspecies are described. Ssp. ariamena is about a third smaller than ssp. phocaea (D'Abrera, 1982; Yata and Morishita, 1979), has more reduces greenish blue strigae on both wings (D'Abrera, 1982), which have a darker blue colouration (D'Abrera, 1982; Yata and Morishita, 1979) and with somewhat lighter brown under surface (D'Abrera, 1982), the black markings are well developed and the brown markings on the underside wing surface are paler (Yata and Morishita, 1979).