Undersides are commonly pale brown, with the following transverse pale lilac-white bands crossing both forewing and hindwing: basal, subbasal, discal, postdiscal, broad subterminal and terminal; the subbasal and discal of equal width, meeting above the tornal angle in V-shape, the space between the two bands with, on the forewing, two shorter similar bands crossing the cell, on the hindwing a single similar band from costa to median vein; subterminal band on hindwing bent upwards above tornal area and continued halfway up the dorsal margin, the broadly-produced tornus with a dark brown spot; finally a large ochraceous ocellus in interspace 2, and a smaller similar one in interspace 6.

Secondary sex-mark a glandular fold in membrane of wing shaded by tufts of long hair along vein 1 on upperside of hindwing, and preapically on the abdomen with tufts of stiff long hairs.

[3][4] Female: Females typically possess upper and undersides similar to those of the male, but paler; on the upperside the fulvous along the costal margin widens into a preapical patch, and generally the bands on the underside show through and appear above as pale fulvous bands.

With regard to coloration, the fifth instars show marked difference in their ground colour: some being more brownish and some more greyish.

[5] This butterfly is widely distributed across parts of India, Myanmar, Indo China, Peninsular Malaysia and Thailand.

[1][2] The palmking had been reported from Travancore (Kerala) in 1891 by Ferguson[citation needed] and has recently been rediscovered there by C. Susanth and his team (2007).

[6] Evans also reported the palmking to occur in "Bassein" Vasai-Virar, (Thane district, Maharashtra)[7] but there have been no recent confirmed sightings there.

It was George Mathew and Unni Krishnan Pulikkal who studied the life-stages, and photographically documented, for the first time in 2008.

The pupa is green; head bifid, elongate boat-shaped (Moore cited in Bingham).

[3] At least on Borneo but probably elsewhere too, adults like many Morphinae do not generally visit carrion or old fruit to drink liquids.