Dark black -brown, with a red -brown band which is anteriorly broader and posteriorly narrower and bears costally 2 white-centred ocelli and towards the hindmargin an additional smaller one.

Underside of the forewing sombre red-brown the band lighter and distinctly contrasting; the distal margin and apex dusted with bluish grey.

The hindwing beneath bluish- or ashy- grey with black -brown dusting; the centre traversed by a curved, posteriorly broadly dentate, almost uniformly brown band which sharply borders the distal area.

- In pitho Hbn (37c), which represents the species in the Swiss Alps and the southern Jura, the markings of the upperside are either entirely absent or there is only a reddish tint as a faint remnant of the same, the 2 ocelli near the apex are small and have minute white pupils.

The butterfly appears in August and September, fluttering with a jerky flight in meadows and on grassy slopes of the mountain and alpine regions.