The adult is a small fritillary with a typically chequered orange-brown upperside and a marginal row of triangles and dots.

The hindwing beneath is very characteristic, being strongly variegated with purple, its distal band deeply dentate on both sides and bearing purple-brown partly pale-centred dots.

is the eastern European form; smaller, paler, with somewhat thinner lilac markings; darker beneath, the median band of the hindwing more uniformly yellow, not being variegated with red; from Saratow.

staudingeri Wnukowsky, 1929] (68f) the band occupying the distal area much less deeply and more evenly indented on both sides from the mountains of South-West Siberia.

The larvae feed on Viola species, Vaccinium uliginosum, Bistorta major, Filipendula ulmaria and Trollius asiaticus.