Forewing purplish brown; costa pale to outer line: cell dark brown; stigmata large, greyish ochreous: the claviform dark; hindwing in male white, with narrow grey shade along margin, in female more or less grey-tinged throughout.- in ab.

the forewing is more variegated, the submarginal line preceded by a row of distinct black teeth; - ab.

is also larger than typical; forewing ochreous grey with costa and both stigmata whitish, darker in the female; — ab.

the same size as type, forewing with more acute apex, deep shining violet brown, with traces of subterminal only: costa and stigmata (which are small) pale testaceous; the orbicular somewhat angulated, the reniform constricted in middle: claviform obsolete: the cell deep black; hindwing very dark; described from a female only from Lapland; omitted by Staudinger, but probably a distinct species: a very distinct form from the Urals, which may be called ab.

The larvae feed on various herbaceous plants, such as Helianthemum nummularium and Galium species.