Males and females: Upperside van Dyke brown, slightly darker, especially in the female, towards apex of forewing.
Male. Forewing: a costal and two preapical spots white. Hindwing: the ocelli (eyespots) of the underside showing through, sometimes forming two or three obscure black spots; two slender subterminal black lines. Underside paler, shaded with dark brown. Forewing: narrow subbasal and outer cellular transverse sinuous white lines; an irregular broad discal and a narrower postdiscal band white, forming a V, the latter bearing a series of four blind, dusky-black, fulvous-ringed ocelli; the two preapical white spots as on the upperside. Distinct slender subterminal whitish and broader terminal ochraceous lines. Hindwing: a subbasal transverse sinuous white line; a postdiscal arched series of six black ocelli, their centres disintegrated, their inner ring ochraceous, outer brown, and the whole series bordered inwardly and outwardly by lilacine (lilac-coloured) white lines; finally a slender white subterminal and a broader ochraceous terminal line as on the forewing.[3]
Female upperside differs in having a broad, oblique, white, discal band on the forewing and a spot below its posterior end in interspace 1, the inner border of the band bi-emarginate, the outer irregularly sinuous. Underside as in the male, but the markings more pronounced, the white discal band on forewing very prominent. Antennae, head, thorax and abdomen brown; antennae preapically black, at apex ochraceous.[3][4]
Race nilgiriensis, Guerin. Male. Differs only from the male of the typical form in having on the upperside of the forewing an additional white spot placed terminally in interspace 2; the female differs from the female of the typical form in having on the upperside of the forewing the discal white band divided into three distinct well-separated white spots, and on the underside in the same band being distinctly narrower.[3]
Central and southern India; recorded on the western side as far north as Mount Abu; Ceylon.
Larva
"Fusiform, elongated; head conical, the vertex being prolonged to an acute point projecting forward and anal segment also prolonged to a point projecting backwards. Colour green, with darker dorsal and lateral stripes and a slight ochreous subdorsal stripe" (Moore.) "Feeds on grasses" (Green).[3]