This species varies in colour exceedingly; the brighter rufous specimens, with pale veins, represent typical lychnidis F.; the duller brownish forms, also with pale veins, are pistacina F.; - rubetra Esper the bright rufous unicolorous form with all markings indistinct, and the costal edge often conspicuously white at middle, of which ferrea Haw.

is a form in which the lines and veins and edges of the stigmata are dull fulvous and the ground colour blackish, as a rule much darker in the male than in the female; dark specimens like these also occur but with the light shades only dull brown and the dark interspaces not so black; caerulescens Calb.

from Italy, is a bluish or lilac grey insect; this form also occurs in Asia Minor; a large number of examples from Amasia, especially females, agree exactly, while the rest, mainly males become greyish luteous, as in serina, with the markings varying in intensity".

Agrochola lychnidis inhabits grasslands, pastures, forest edges, embankments, clearcuttings and occurs occasionally also in human settlements (gardens).

The larvae are polyphagous feeding on low plants when small, later consuming the leaves of various trees and shrubs[2] (Prunus, Salix, Achillea, Ranunculus etc.).