Its range extends from northwest Africa in the west to Transcaucasia and across the Palearctic to Siberia and Japan in the east.

White, with thin black veins, the female with a large sparsely-scaled discal area on the forewing; underside similar to upper.

nov., from the Taurus (south Asia Minor), is pure white in male, with thin dark veins, the tips of the same being scarcely perceptibly darkened; the female not quite so transparent as in alepica, the dark edges of the veins being distally faint but broad, and the cross-veins of the forewing being more densely shaded with black.

— Tutt enumerates, besides, the following aberrations: suffusa are specimens shaded with fuscous; marginata are individuals with a distinct black distal marginal band to the hindwing (somewhat reminding one of Colias edusa) ; lunulata has the disco-cellulars of the hindwing broadly marked with black, forming a distinct black halfmoon ;melana has fuscous stripes between the veins of the underside of the hindwing: flava are entirely yellow specimens.

The butterfly is locally still very frequent, though its abundance and range have considerably diminished in consequence of the systematic destruction of the winter-nests and the war against the black- thorn-hedges.

The species appears to be commonest in Central Europe; Dr. Seitz found the insect more singly in East Asia and likewise in Algiers, where he met with it near Lambeze in June.

A. crataegi is rarer in southern Japan than in the north of that country, likewise in Amurland, where it flies together with A. hippia.

The eggs are laid on the food plant, usually a member of the rose family Rosaceae and often on trees and bushes (Malus domestica, Malus × kaido, Pyrus communis, Pyrus serotina, Sorbus intermedia, Hedlundia hybrida (formerly Sorbus hybrida), Sorbus aucuparia, Crataegus monogyna, Crataegus oxyacantha, Crataegus jozana, Prunus spinosa, Prunus padus, Prunus ssiori, Betula spp., Salix phylicifolia, Chaenomeles lagenaria).

Caterpillars feed close together on the leaves of the food plant at first, before dispersing in the later developmental stages to other parts of the tree.