Description
The species exhibits sexual dimorphism where the male (shown here) is black with greenish blue wing margins whilst the female is dark brown with yellow spots on both wings.
Habitat & Habits
The Archduke is a powerful flyer and is difficult to capture on the wing. It is essentially a jungle butterfly and is relatively common in Singapore's lowland forests. It is attracted by rotting fruit (pineapple and guava are favourites) and can be found feeding greedily on these fruits on the forest floor. A very similar-looking species, Lexias dirtea merguia, can be distinguished from Lexias pardalis dirteana, by its antennal club - the apical portion is orange-brown in L pardalis but entirely black in L dirtea.
Other Observations
To be detailed.
Early Stages
Refer to the ButterflyCircle's blog article - The Life History of the Archduke.
Further Reading
Butterfly of the month - September 2009.
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