MORPHOLOGY
External characteristics
Male
Forewings: The upper side wing surface has well developed black coloured streaks. The forewing posterior half is stained by grey scales (Yata and Morishita, 1979). Hindwings The hindwing underside has a yellow coloured basal area, which is tinged with orange. There is a marginal row of white coloured spots, which are nearly oval. The hindwing posterior half is stained by grey scales (Yata and Morishita, 1979).
Female
The female is darker than the male (Yata and Morishita, 1979).
Subspecies and variation
Five subspecies are described (D'Abrera, 1982; Yata and Morishita, 1979). Both sexes of ssp. timnatha are similar to the males of ssp. sorror, with the males of ssp. timnatha are slightly lighter and the females are slightly darker (D'Abrera, 1982). Ssp. filia is larger and paler coloured than the nominate species. It further has reduced black streaks and blue-ish grey scales. Ssp. soror is smaller and has a darker forewing, even though the blue-ish grey scaling is much reduced. Ssp. aurulenta has on the hindwing the basal orange colouration deeper and the marginal spots are smaller (Yata and Morishita, 1979).