[3] Jalmenus evagoras lives along the east coast of Australia in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, and the Australian Capital Territory.

[2] Populations of this butterfly are distributed sporadically throughout this range, which is due in part to its need for nitrogen-rich host plants and specific species of attendant ants belonging to the genus Iridomyrmex.

The butterflies live in small demes, or breeding populations, over limited areas which may consist of no more than one tree.

[6] They have a high level of site fidelity, meaning that the majority of butterflies are found in the same place almost every day of their adult lives.

Their specialized exocrine glands then secrete food for attendant ants as a reward for their protection from predators and parasitoids.

In particular, the choice of nitrogen-fixing and other protein-rich host plants is correlated with higher attendance of ants to the butterfly larvae.

Protein acquired from consuming the plants allows J. evagoras larvae to produce sufficient amino acid secretions to sustain their mutualism with the ants.

[7] J. evagoras adult females can increase both their fecundity and longevity by feeding on flowers with a higher concentration of sugar in their nectar.

Higher sugar levels can increase a female butterfly's lifespan from four to twenty-eight days and allow her to lay up to three times as many eggs.

Female butterflies were observed changing their oviposition sites over the course of the egg laying season from the outside of plants to the inside of trunk crevices.

This includes the species and nutritional attributes of the host plant as well as the presence or absence of ants and conspecific larvae.

Possible cues for this include the colour of the leaf (darker green indicating higher nutritive value) and taste, once she has landed on the plant.

[3] A combination of sensory cues are taken into consideration by the female butterfly before and after landing on the host plant to ensure that her eggs have an optimal chance of survival in the location she chooses.

[11] The main predators of J. evagoras larvae are other arthropods such as vespid wasps, predatory ponerine ants, reduviid bugs, and spiders.

The presence of attendant ants has been shown to protect against the braconids and the trichogrammatids in certain sites, but it does not decrease the parasitism of chalcidid wasps.

[3] Adult males search for mates by investigating the clusters of larvae clumped together on the branches of Acacia host plants.

A mating ball is subsequently formed as up to thirty males scramble to the site of an eclosing pupa that is just about to emerge as an adult.

[3] Attendant ants protect J. evagoras juveniles from predators and parasitoids and are rewarded with food secretions from the larvae or pupae.

Female butterflies use the presence or absence of ants for oviposition, and males use them to locate healthy pupae for mating.