About Nymphs, Danaiids, Satyrs, Fritillaries and Browns

The Nymphalidae is a family of about 5,000 species of butterflies, typically fairly large, such as the emperor, admirals, tortoiseshells and fritillaries, which have very colourful wings. Underwings are dull. The caterpillars are hairy or spiky, and the chrysalids have shiny spots.

 

Brown Ringlet

Brown Ringlet Hypocysta metirius is a medium-sized butterfly, wingspan around 55 mm. Wing tops are brown with orange patches and an eyespot pattern on each of its hind wings. Underneath, the wings are brown, and each hind wing has two eyespots. Their caterpillars are green or brown with dark lines along the body, and have two short horns on both the head and the tail.

Brown Ringlet. Photo: Derek Boddington

 

Painted Lady

Painted Lady Vanessa kershawi is a medium-sized butterfly with a wingspan of around 55 mm. Wings bright orange with black and white patterns on top with four eyespots on each hind wing. The undersides of the hind wings are pale brown with grey and white patterning. Fast fliers, fly about 1 m from the ground. Caterpillars are brown with short hairs, hide during the day and emerge at night to feed .

Photo: Derek Boddington

 

Yellow Admiral

Yellow Admiral Vanessa itea is a large butterfly, wing span around 60 mm. Tops of wings are orange and black with a big pale yellow patch on each forewing. Undersides are mottled brown with paler yellow patches and a blue eyespot under each forewing.

Photo: Robert Whyte

 

Jezebel Nymph

The Jezebel Nymph (also known as White Nymph) Mynes geoffroyi is a rainforest butterfly common in Brisbane suburbs because its host plant is often planted as a pioneer in bushcare sites and in butterfly-friendly gardens. These Jezebel nymphs in the photograph were observed by former Catchment Coordinator Melinda Mclean emerging as butterflies in St John’s Wood on Pipturus argenteus. Dr Don Sands writes: “This butterfly mimics the Jezebels because they [Jezebels] are full of toxins (after feeding on mistletoes) whereas the J. nymph is very palatable having fed on Pipturus – a member of the edible Urticaceae.” The eggs are laid on plants of the Urticaceae family which includes nettles and the Stinging Trees Dendrocnide spp. Eggs are laid in batches of 40 or so, which can result in rapid defoliation by caterpillars. The chrysalis looks like a miniature sleeping Flying Fox with two shiny spots resembling eyes. Butterflies hatch in May-June (or they did in 2006, anyway).

Photo: Robert Whyte

Chrysalis. Photo: Melinda Mclean

 

Meadow Argus

Meadow Argus Junonia villida is a medium-sized butterfly with a wingspan of around 50 to 60 mm, brown in colour with eye-pattern on all the wing, and orange and white marks on the top edge of its forewings. When at rest, they cover the eye spots with the front wings. When a predator comes close, the butterfly will suddenly show the eye spots in an attempt to scare them away. The eyespots are a defense mechanism that are not only used to frighten predators away, but also to confuse the predators into thinking that the eyespots are the target, allowing the butterfly to escape with only a small part of the wing being lost.

Meadow Argus on Billygoat Weed. Photo: Derek Boddington

Female Meadow Argus on Breynia oblongifolia at Walton Bridge Reserve 2025. Photo: Anne Jones

 

Blue Tiger

Blue Tiger Tirumala hamata is a large, distinctive butterfly, similar in size and shape to the related Orange Wanderer. Males and females similar. Tropical butterfly with migrant tendencies. Feed in coastal vine thickets on poisonous milkweed plants.

Photo: Robert Whyte

 

Ringed Xenica

The Ringed Xenica Geitoneura acantha is a medium-sized butterfly with a wingspan of about 40 mm. The upper surfaces of the wings are orange with dark brown markings, and an eyespot on each wing. The undersides are yellow with brown markings, with one eyespot on each forewing and two on each hind wing. Ringed Xenicas fly close to the ground and land frequently relying on their camouflaged wings to hide them.

Photo: Derek Boddingto

 

Common Crow

The Common Crow Eupoloea core, also known as Common Australian Crow and Oleander Butterfly, has a wingspan of about 70 mm with the male slightly smaller than the female. Males have the forewing upperside sex brand as a single elliptical patch. There are other similar crows. Adults have a weak, sailing flight, usually a few metres above ground, and feed on a variety of flowers. Females overwinter in large populations (suspending breeding). Food plants include Apocynaceae, both native Monkey Rope and introduced Oleander. Also feed on Asclepidiaceae and Moraceae. Characteristic striped caterpillar.

Common Crow Caterpillar. Photo: Robert Whyte

 

Varied Eggfly

As the name suggests, the Varied Eggfly Hypolimna bolina butterfly comes in many forms. Males establish territories by perching on trees adjacent to an open areas. Food plants include Alteranthera and Sida, as well as Psuederanthemum.

Photo: Mark Crocker

 

Evening Brown

The Evening Brown Melanitis leda is a common species of butterfly found flying at dusk. The flight of this species is erratic. They are found in South Asia and South-East Asia extending to parts of Australia. Colonel C. T. Bingham wrote of the genus in 1878 “The Melanitis was there among dead leaves, its wings folded and looking for all the world a dead, dry leaf itself. With regard to Melanitis, I have not seen it recorded anywhere that the species of this genus when disturbed fly a little way, drop suddenly into the undergrowth with closed wings, and invariably lie a little askew and slanting, which still more increases their likeness to a dead leaf casually fallen to the ground.” The adult has two forms. In the winter (dry) season form the upperside is dark brown with an orange patch containing double eyespot near the tip of each forewing. The wingspan is about 70 mm. The summer (wet) season form is paler.The underside of both forms is variable – generally a cryptic brown with a number of small eyespots. Evening Brown caterpillars feed on various members of the Grass Poaceae family and have been found also on Sedges Carex sp. The caterpillar is cylindrical, green with white spots, with two dark reddish hairy horns on its head, and a pair of horns on its tail.

Photo: Robert Whyte

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Evening Brown Caterpillar. Photo: Robert Whyte

Evening Brown Caterpillar. Photo: Robert Whyte

 

Lesser Wanderer

The adult Lesser Wanderer Danaus chrysippus butterflies are orange with wide black borders around the wings, and a variable number of white spots in the black tips of the forewings. The head is black with white spots, and the thorax black with a white dorsal line. The abdomen is brown. The butterflies only have four legs. The wingspan is about 60 mm. The eggs are pale yellow and bullet-shaped. They are laid singly on young growth of a foodplant. The pupa hangs by its tail from a leaf of the foodplant, and has a length of about 15 mm. In life, it is greenish-brown with a golden ring around the thorax. The skin turns brown once the butterfly has left the pupa. The male has a more prominent black markings near the centre of each hind wing. The caterpillar of this species is banded with black and yellow, and has yellow spots all over. It also has three pairs of filaments. It feeds on various plants that have a poisonous milky sap. The Caterpillar appears to retain the poisons in its body making it unpalatable to predators. In Australia, its foods are all from the Milkweed Asclepiadaceae family and include Blood Flower Asclepias curassavica, Balloon Plant Asclepias physocarpa, Broad-leaved Cotton Bush Asclepias rotundifolia, Bush Potato Brachystelma glabriflorum, Common Milkweed Calotropis gigantea, Rubber Bush Calotropis procera, Mangrove Milkweed Cynanchum carnosum, Cynanchum christineae, Native Pear Cynanchum floribundum, Cynanchum liebiana, Swan Plant Gomphocarpus fruticosus, Bush Banana Marsdenia australis, Purple Pentatrope Rhyncharrhena linearis and Sarcostemma esculentum. Chrysippus of Soli was a Greek philosopher who is considered the cofounder of Stoicism.

Photo: Robert Whyte

Male underside. Photo: Robert Whyte

 

Glasswing

Glasswing Acraea andromacha caterpillars feed on various Passion vines including Lacewing Vine Adenia heterophylla, Red passionflower Passiflora cinnabarina, Native Passionfruit Passiflora herbertiana as well as the introduced Love in a Mist Passiflora foetida, Banana Passionfruit Passiflora mollissima, Corky Passionfruit Passiflora suberosa and White Passionfruit Passiflora subpeltata and also some Violaceae including Shrub Violet Hybanthus aurantiacus, Hybanthus stellarioides and Spade Flower Hybanthus enneaspermus. The caterpillars are brown, with branched black spines arising from black spots all over the body. They grow to a length of about 30 mm. The pupa is cream, with striking black markings, and rows of black outlined orange spots along the abdomen. It has two blunt horns on its head. It hangs head downward by a silk cremaster from the food plant.The forewings of the adult butterflies are transparent, with black spots (hence the name). The hindwings are white with a subterminal black arc, and a black border containing white spots. The butterflies have a wing span of about 6 cms. They are inclined to congregate around larval food plants. These Glasswing caterpillars also photographed by John Lahey at Fort Bushland Reserve on the corner of Fort Road and Cliveden Avenue, Oxley were feeding on Corky Passion Vine Passiflora suberosa.

Glasswing Caterpillar. Photo: Robert Whyte

Glasswing Caterpillars. Photo: John Lahey, Fort Bushland Reserve, Oxley

This adult Glasswing was feeding on nectar of an exotic species of Verbena at Fort Bushland Reserve on the corner of Fort Road and Cliveden Avenue Oxley. Photo: John Lahey, Fort Bushland Reserve, Oxley

This Glasswing was photographed on Monday 24 March 2008 on the roadside of the Mt Glorious Road via Samford. Photo: Robert Whyte

This Glasswing was feeding on nectar of Lantana, or seemed to be. There may well have been Passifloraceae food plants around. Photo: Robert Whyte