the Northern Territory and Queensland. Life history Egg "Very unlike that of other Lycaenidae but shows an unexpected resemblance to that of Logania, Distant, and Taraka, Doherty. It is of great size, green overlaid with white, shaped something like a section or drum of a Doric column but somewhat widest at the base, the height, breadth at apex and breadth at base being to each other as 9, 13 and 15.5. The top is marked with hexagonal reticulations, the lines turbinate in the middle, the margin deeply channeled and then strongly carinate. Sides crusted with white and minutely indented with about forty-five vertical ribs, slightly irregular and even (very rarely) anastomosing, extending also over the outer part of the base, the inner part being green and minutely reticulated with hexagons." (Doherty) Larva Oval flattened and slug like with a hard and smooth covering. The caterpillars can devour the entire broods of green ant nests. The protective orange carapace is virtually impervious to the bites of soldier ants and it is so heavy that the ants cannot flip it over to get at the caterpillar's soft underbody. Once the caterpillar transforms into a butterfly inside the nest, its soft body is vulnerable to the ants who can swarm and dismember intruders. However, as the butterfly quickly moves toward an exit, it is protected by white scales from its new wings; the scales are slippery enough to prevent most ants from getting a foothold and these scales stick to the ants' jaws, disorienting and distracting them. "The jaws would most effectively take hold of the skin of an ant larva, piercing its skin at the same time in six places; they would then draw the piece so seized within the closed cavity formed between the labrum, labium and (laterally) maxillae so that the juices of the larva could be easily sucked out." (T. A. Chapman) Pupa "The pupa inside lies quite free from any attachment to the skin, but the ventral depression of the pupa is due to its having to fit on the ventral aspect of the larval skin, which is raised centrally by the head, legs, prolegs etc. The larval skin dehisces by cracking round the marginal crest in front, by a crack across the front of the three ridges, i.e. between third and fourth abdominal segments. The semicircular portion thus marked off again divides longitudinally into two portions." (T.