The females are rarer, because they tend to stay in the tops of the trees and seldom venture to the ground (see above).

The butterflies use their proboscis to draw important minerals from the sap of trees, from the ground or also from sweat.

[2] The butterflies feed on aspens, and occasionally also black poplars in warm, wind-free locations.

[7] In Europe, caterpillars feed on aspen trees: Populus tremula and P. nigra (not on P. alba).

In Japan, they eat Populus maximowiczii (Tabuchi), the Japanese subspecies even accept many varieties of willow (Salix sp.)

As a general rule hatching occurs from 3rd week of June to mid-July, although some have been known to leave as early as May (which is often the case in Japan).

The manual coupling is described by Marion Weidemann,[9] this is the Austin Platt's method which consists to partially suffocate the male (anaesthetize in a cyanide bottle) before hand pairing (Dr. A. Platt specialized on North American Limenitis species).

Putting the poplar (P. nigra) or aspen (P. tremula) leaves on the bottom of the box may be useful but not indispensable, because few eggs are laid on them.

the box and female should be kept at 25 to 30 degrees C (28°C appears best) and room light is enough… Eggs are laid irregularly on the bottom of walls, sometimes on the tulle.

The eggs collected this way are put into an air-tight plastic container with leaves of poplar or aspen.

The species is known to occur in western Europe from Denmark to northern Italy (the Spanish record noted by Miguel-Angel Gomez Bustillo[10] is doubtful), then Germany to Greece, Russia to Japan including China.

The distribution since seems to be rather reduced (no more seen in Forêt de Mormal - North of France - the last 20 years where it was a relatively common species).

The species is endangered primarily due to the clearing of forests containing the trees that they must feed on to survive.