MORPHOLOGY
External characteristics
Male
Forewings: The forewing upper side has some blackened veins and cubitus. The upper side wing surface cell and spots are blackened. Both the cell spot on the forewing underside and the subbasal series of spots on the hindwing underside become extinct (Yata and Morishita, 1979). Hindwings The hindwing upper side has an outer black border, which is uniformly and broadly continued along the inner margin of the base (Yata and Morishita, 1979).
Female
The upper side wing surface has broad black borders and restricted yellow coloured areas black dusted, some specimen look almost black (Yata and Morishita, 1979).
Subspecies and variation
Ten (D'Abrera, 1982) or nine (Yata and Morishita, 1979) subspecies are described. Ssp. magnolia is similar to ssp. tominia, but the latter one has broader and brighter yellow bands on the underside surface of the wings (D'Abrera, 1982). The black borders are geographically variable, particularly the one along the hind margin. The black border of ssp. nabalua is narrower along the hind margin of the forewing, especially in the cell, than that of ssp. tominia. The ground-colour of ssp. faunia is paler than any other subspecies. A unique characteristic of ssp. theritra is that it has its black borders markedly broadened, it is probably the most blackened subspecies (Yata and Morishita, 1979).