It is found in Europe, Asia Minor, the Caucasus and Transcaucasus.

The typical northern form is rather small and in general dark reddish.

- geneata Feisth., the prevailing form in the Alps and in Transcaucasia, perhaps also in the Pyrenees, is larger, somewhat paler and with a less definite red tinge, the ground colour being somewhat mixed with violet or purplish.

perversa Hirschke is an aberration of geneata, from the Franzenshohe, in which the basal and median areas of the forewing, instead of being darker than the ground colour of the wings, are lighter.

[1] The larva is naked, light green with white longitudinal stripes.