Riodinidae is currently treated as a distinct family within the superfamily Papilionoidea, but in the past they were held to be the subfamily Riodininae of the Lycaenidae.

[1] Here it is considered part of subfamily Nemeobiinae, tribe Zemerini, within the metalmark butterfly family (Riodinidae).

[8] In the first decade of the 21st century the butterfly was in serious decline in the UK due to a lack of appropriate land management and overgrazing.

Since 2003, twenty-two projects targeted the butterfly which reversed the threat of local extinction in the North York Moors, Kent and Sussex.

[9] Two distinct habitats are used in the UK:[4] Colonies prefer areas where the food plants grow among tussocky vegetation.

[3][4][8] Eggs are typically laid in small groups (up to eight) on the underside of leaves of a host plant; though they may also be laid singly or on foliage adjacent to the food plant (e.g. if primulas are growing among dense vegetation, old females laying in hot weather).

The eggs are initially glossy and opaque, turning to a uniform pale green; prior to hatching, they develop a distinct dark purple blotch.

Significant, though unintentional, predators of H. lucina eggs are large snails, as they eat primulas in the spring.

They move down to the base of leaf stems, where they spend the daylight hours (the caterpillars are nocturnal).