MORPHOLOGY
External characteristics
Male
Forewing length (mm): 21 - 26 (DBpedia, n.d.).
Forewings: The forewing underside has two cell spots, with the outer one larger and is roughly zigzagged. The apex of the forewing underside has a cleft, square, dark, brown coloured spot. The upper side wing surface has a slight greenish lemon yellow ground-colour (Yata and Morishita, 1979). Hindwings The termen on the hindwing are evenly rounded. The hindwing underside has a subbasal spot (Yata and Morishita, 1979).
Female
Forewing length (mm): 19 - 52 (DBpedia, n.d.).
Subspecies and variation
Five (D'Abrera, 1982) or six (Yata and Morishita, 1979) subspecies are described. Sexes of ssp. tecmessa are similar, but the females are slightly paler (D'Abrera, 1982). There is geographical variation in the dark brown coloured apical spot on the forewing underside. Ssp. littorea has on the upper side wing surface a narrower outer black margin, a wider cleft apical spot and on the hindwing underside a median series of spots. Ssp. irena is the largest subspecies, it has a deeper yellow colouration on the upper side wing surface and the outer black margin is poorly developed, the underside wing surface is spots which are tinged with a reddish brown colouration (Yata and Morishita, 1979).