It was one of the species encountered by the British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace in his travels in maritime Southeast Asia.

It is mentioned in his famous 19th-century work The Malay Archipelago as one of the best examples of protective camouflage achieved through natural selection.

[1][3] The male of the species was first described as Paphia paralekta by the American physician and naturalist Thomas Horsfield in 1829.

The areas below the orange bands and the entire upper surface of the hindwings are a brilliant deep blue to purple.

However, the colors are always those of dead leaves like gray, brown, red, olive green, or pale yellow.

Patterns like blotches, dark spots, and powdery dots resembling mildew and other fungal growth are so realistic that observers may be tricked into thinking that the butterfly itself is being attacked by actual fungi.

[15] Also on the wings are small and oval scaleless areas (hyaline spots) that look like transparent "windows" and mimic holes left by insect larvae on leaves.

[10] Kallima paralekta was made famous in the 19th century by the British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace.

In his influential book The Malay Archipelago, Wallace describes it as "the most wonderful and undoubted case of protective resemblance in a butterfly".