The Joker or Spotted Joker (Byblia ilithyia) is a species of nymphalid

Nymphalidae

The Nymphalidae is a family of about 5,000 species of butterflies which are distributed throughout most of the world. These are usually medium sized to large butterflies. Most species have a reduced pair of forelegs and many hold their colourful wings flat when resting. They are also called...

 butterfly

Butterfly

A butterfly is a mainly day-flying insect of the order Lepidoptera, which includes the butterflies and moths. Like other holometabolous insects, the butterfly's life cycle consists of four parts: egg, larva, pupa and adult. Most species are diurnal. Butterflies have large, often brightly coloured...

 found in parts of Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

 and Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

.

Wet-season form

The male has the upperwings of a deep rich orange. The forewing has the costa broadly black until nearly the apex. The cell has three narrow short black bands, the inner and outer not reaching the median vein. An irregular black spot from dorsum to vein 4, continues very narrowly along that vein to meet an oblique irregular band from just beyond the middle of the costa. A postdiscal broad transverse black band from dorsum to vein 4, with the portions of the veins beyond it defined in black. The apex of the wing beyond the broad black edging to the costal border has its upper margin and the terminal portions of the veins defined in black; finally a narrow terminal band. The hind-wing has an elongate black sub-costal patch near base, continued posteriorly across the cell by an inner and an outer series of small transverse spots; a complete broad black postdiscal band with the portions of the veins beyond it lined with black, and a narrow black terminal band as on the forewing. Cilia of fore and hind wings white, alternated with brown.

Underside paler duller orange. Fore wing: black markings as on the upperside, but the cell and upper discal markings obscurely margined on the inner side by white; an oblique black line from costa to apex of post-discal transverse band, followed by an oblique pre-apical series of diffuse white spots, the terminal black band as on the upperside but traversed by a broken white line. Hind wing: a sub-basal and a discal broad, transverse white band, both bordered inwardly by a series of black spots, and outwardly by a broad black line; a somewhat narrower postdiscal transverse black band traversed by a series of paired white spots, followed by a row of cone-shaped markings of the ground-colour, the apices of the cones turned inwards and broadly white ; finally, a black terminal band traversed by a series of white lunules. Antennae black; head, thorax and abdomen dark dusky fulvous red; beneath, palpi white, head, thorax and abdomen dark ochraceous, variegated with some black and white lines and spots.

Female similar, with similar markings, but on the upperside the ground-colour is paler, the black markings narrower. Fore wing: the postdiscal black band nearly complete, interrupted only in interspaces 1 and 4; the terminal black band traversed by a broken white line. Hind wing: no subcostal black patch, instead three series of transverse spots; a postdiscal transverse broad black band bordered inwardly by a series of slender black loops, between these and the postdiscal band a series of spots of the ground-colour; the terminal black band traversed as on the fore wing by a whitish broken line. Underside similar to that in the male, but the ground-colour paler. On the fore wing the black markings comparatively narrower, less well-defined; on the hind wing the white on the bands and spots replaced by pale yellow.

Dry-season form

Males and females are similar to the wet-season form but the black markings are not so sharply defined. Underside: ground-colour darker, on the hind wing a dark ochraceous; the transverse subbasal and discal bands in both sexes white.

Wing expanse: 50-56 mm.

The haploid chromosome number is 17.

Host plants

The larvae feed on Tragia dubanensis, Tragia glabrata

Tragia glabrata

The Stinging Nettle Creeper is a twining herb in the family Euphorbiaceae, with a restricted distribution in southern Africa.-Distribution and habitat:...

, Dalechampia capensis, and Tragia cannabina.