Forewings show a black background, with five large red stains usually joined together and often surrounded by ocher-orange rings.

The red colour predominates so much that it occupies the whole fore-wing, there remaining only small black dots.

The red collar is never present; however, sometimes there are yellowish white hairs at the edge of the thorax.

I have before me a pale yellow aberration belonging to the Tring Museum: the figure (7i) bears the name pallida [Zygaena hilaris ssp.

ononidis Millière, 1878], from the French Riviera, the red spots are not separated by yellowish white borders from the black ground.

galliae Oberthür, 1910] (7k) has no black but only light dots (remnants of the edging), and lastly ab.

The moths fly especially in the morning till 11 o'clock and again in the afternoon from 4, on dry sunny hills and on the cornfields situated between the mountains.

They always whiz about quite low, about 20 cm only above the ground, resting with preference on clusters of Thyme.

They vary strongly, Oberthur recording, besides the above-mentioned forms, also aberrations with coffee-brown wings.