A late emerger, coming out in mid-July and restricted (in France) to the eastern Alpine départements, its lower altitude limit being 1400m. I had not seen it before 2006, and only in one remote location then, when it was about the only species present. It was rather smaller than I had expected but very appealing when fresh.

observations

a male, taking salts. The external edge of the red upf post-discal band is quite concave giving it a clearly jagged appearance. It was quite a large and dark individual.

a male, showing the uph post-discal red band with the same external concavity. This is different to the male illustration in T&L, but as shown in T&L for the female.

male upperside, the narrow width of the red upf band indicating male. The uph ocelli are very close to the bottom edge of the red post-discal series of somewhat jagged patches, unlike most book illustrations. Similarly, the books show a upf ocellus in s2, not present here.

a female, with the characteristic wider red upf post-discal band than the male.

a male, the underside of 23094. The patterning says montana but it is very dark generally (c.f. 3332) and has little contrast across the discal line.

the darker male underside, with the unmistakeable "marbling" effect.

the typical female underside, lighter and more obviously "marbled". Note that the female hindwing is slightly scalloped.