Its range includes Europe south of 62°N, Russia eastwards to the Urals, Asia Minor, Iraq, Iran, North Africa and the Canary Islands.

The upperside of the male is uniformly light brown with a black ocellus centered white at the apex of the forewing, while the female has a tawny patch more or less extended around this ocella.

The underside forewing is ochre-colored bordered with dark beige with the same ocelli at the apex in the male, while the hindwing is greyish to brown with a more or less orange band in the female.

Aberration cinerea has a bluish gloss on the dark upperside; the hindwing is strongly dentate, tinged with pink on the underside, and bears two eye-dots In hot summers one not seldom meets with specimens in which the reddish yellow colour has increased, this colour being represented by a yellowish red dusting on the apical area in the male and in the female by a yellowish red area in the disc of the hindwing.

The live male has in its apical area a magnificent golden gloss on a deep black ground, in the female the ground-colour above is reduced by the extension of the reddish yellow.

The egg, laid on a blade of grass as shown (Plate 85), is upright and ribbed; the top is flattened, with an impressed ring thereon.

Recorded larval food plants include rough meadow grass (Poa trivialis), smooth meadow grass (Poa pratensis), Festuca species, bents (Agrostis species), and cock's-foot (Dactylis glomerata), false brome (Brachypodium sylvaticum), downy oat-grass and Helictotrichon pubescens.

Adults feed on nectar from a wide spectrum of plants including Centaurea, Cirsium, Leontodon, Erica, Rubus, Heracleum, Eupatorium, (sensu lato) Origanum, Senecio, Scabiosa, Succisa, Ligustrum and Filipendula.