Chequered skippers are found in Great Britain and other European regions, but seen locally in Japan and in North America.

In May 2018, 50 individual chequered skippers are to be reintroduced to Rockingham Forest in Northamptonshire by a Butterfly Conservation-led Back from the Brink project.

[5] Though the chequered skipper is a woodland butterfly it can also be found in bogs, at the edges of streams, and at grassy forest openings in both Great Britain and northern parts of the United States.

By laying her eggs in a nitrogen-rich environment, the female increases her offspring's chances of finding food.

[6] Caterpillars in response change their behavior by eating from different parts of the plant depending on the nitrogen availability.

[6] Seeing that the chequered skipper is an active butterfly and can travel long distances it needs to keep its energy stores filled.

In North America the adults are eating from flower's nectar and they include wild iris and Jacob's ladder.

The life cycle of the chequered skipper starts in early June and ends slightly before the July of the following year.

Eggs are singly laid, 20–30 cm above the ground, on the upperside leaf blade of Molinia caerulea or purple moor grass.

Immediately after the egg hatches, the larva begins to make its own shelter by rolling a leaf blade with silk into the shape of a tube.

By the end of September the caterpillar makes one more shelter using two or three blades of M. caerulea and then hibernates; it comes back out in early spring.

These butterflies fly around spring time when there are lower temperatures and stay in the cooler and unpredictable climate that is Scotland.

This decrease in population size is due to the decline of coppicing, which is the cutting of trees close to the base and allowing regrowth to happen.

According to Ravenscroft's study, male chequered skippers are territorial and will determine where mating occurs as they decide optimal places to live.

Conservation of this butterfly is being called for because there once was an abundance of chequered skippers throughout the United Kingdom, but over time the population decreased, so that they are now predominantly seen only in western Scotland.

One important factor that played into this outcome is the overgrazing of the larval habitat by the sheep which decreased the nutrients in the M. caerulea thus causing the larvae to have a hard time gathering the resources it needs in order to survive.

The hunting of deer decreased the amount of grazing that is accomplished usually, which causes shrub to form and that in turn results in adult habitats suffering.

A new company was managing the woodlands in the mid-twentieth century and it resulted in the deforestation of many areas in the United Kingdom and that also allowed the adults to suffer and find different places to live.