Eggs are only ca 0.7-0.9 mm in size, unusually small for that body size in butterflies, but similar in size to its relatives (Vanessa, Kaniska, Nymphalis, etc.). They are bright green with vertical, lighter green ridges. They are usually laid singly on the upperside of stinging nettle leaves, on stinging spines, but may be found anywhere on the plant. Sometimes they are laid in small batches of 2-4 eggs.

Newly hatched caterpillars are more hairy than spiny, brown, with black heads and no markings. The spines grow larger in successive instars. From second instar onward, caterpillars have a series of large white markings on the sides, which grow more prominent in successive instars. The fourth and fifth instars have white and yellow dots all over the body. The final instar is deep maroon-brown with creamy greenish yellow spines, and with a white-yellow dorsal band. The head remains black, but in later instars develops prominent white tubercles, each bearing a long shiny hair. There are no cephalic spines.

Caterpillars create loosely closed shelters for themselves. During the first and second instars, when they are too small to bend over leaf margins, they weave a thick mat of silk over their resting place. In later instars, they start to make loose cells by turning over leaf margins, or by drawing together margins of adjacent leaves. They lie inside the shelters curled sideways, and come out to feed when hungry. They change their shelters when a large part of the leaf is eaten and the shelters no longer adequately conceal them. They are easy to locate since they make prominent shelters, and they are reluctant to move even when their cells are opened or they are otherwise coaxed.

Pupae are also made inside shelters similar but larger to the larval shelters. They usually hang from near the margin rather than from the roof of the shelter. Pupae are either shiny marble-white or pale brown with two rows of small, light orange tubercles on the dorsal side of the abdomen. These tubercles are small near the tip of the abdomen and increase in size towards the thorax. The last three pairs of tubercles, just behind the pointed projection on the dorsal side of the thorax, have much larger, shiny silvery-golden bases. There is an additional pair of small tubercle on the thorax.