It is found in most of Europe including Scandinavia, Britain, France, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Russia.

Forewing dull dark fuscous purple, with the lines slightly paler; the stigmata obscure; a subtriangular whitish blotch on base of vein 2; hindwing orange with broad black terminal border; the costa and inner margin narrowly black and the base of wing often smoky blackish; this, the type form, occurring in Sweden, the north of England and Scotland, and other northern localities is very different from the usual bright red form, which is the ab.

nov. [Warren] is an extreme form of this, in which the white lines are strongly developed, and the central area is milk white from costa to inner margin, including the white blotch on vein 2; in the hindwing the yellow is ampler, the black of the costal, and inner margins and the basal suffusion being reduced; - ab.albivena Haw., described from East Anglian specimens, has the forewing suffused with olive brown, wing remaining normal; while in alpina Ractzer not only is the forewing olive brown, but the hindwing shows only a dull yellowish median band crossed by black veins; and again in olivacea Fuchs the yellow of the hindwing is suffused with olive brown, while the coloration of the forewing remains of the normal bright red; in ab.

nov. [Warren] occurring at Hyères in the south of France, the usual red fusion is almost entirely replaced by black; lastly, in subsp.

nov. [Warren] from Sintra, Portugal, the whole forewing is suffused with blackish, leaving only the white blotch on vein 2 conspicuous, and the orange of the hindwing, both above and below, is pale lemon yellow; as the insect is decidedly larger than average typical myrtilli, it may prove a distinct species; at present I have seen only one - taken in the spring of 1909 by Mr N. C. Rothschild, and now in the Tring Museum.