A species similar to c-album with the wings more strongly dentate and narrower, and the underside more thinly marmorated and pencilled, the hindwing beneath bearing in the centre a white angle-, hook- or J-mark.
The female flying at the same season as the nymotypical has the wings less sharply dentate, is paler, less prominently and more sparsely marked.
(Urticaceae) in July and October; as food-plants are also mentioned Ulmus, Urtica, Ribes, Lonicera, Corylus (Spuler).
It is blackish or slaty grey, with yellow and black belts, the body bearing minute white hairs and dark branched spines; on the back there are pairs of large bluish black spots on a pale ground; the spirales are edged with yellowish, beneath them there being a reddish yellow line; the head heart-shape with 2 spine-like processes.
Pupa grey-brown, tuberculate above, without metallic spots, the head not produced.