Appearance
The name-typical form of ''ferrugata'' as figured by Clerck and well described by Linne, has the median band reddish or purplish, the distal area very weakly marked often almost entirely white or whitish. An aberration, ab. ''unidentaria'' Haw. is a very common and very interesting aberration which has been proved, by my very extensive breeding experiments and those of Dr. Draudt, to be an almost perfect Mendelian "recessive". It differs in having the median band black, not reddish. — ab. ''coarctata'' Prout has the median band greatly narrowed, only 1–2 mm. in width; the rest of the markings often in part obsolete. - ''bilbainensis'' Fuchs, from Bilbao, said to be a local race, is described as smaller, narrower-winged, the distal edge of the median band more distinctly biangulate. I doubt its validity. — ''stupida'' Alph., from Issyk-kul, Tibet, W. Central China, etc., is rather larger, with whiter hindwing otherwise similar to ab. ''unidentaria''.
Distribution
Europe east to the Russian Far East, Siberia, Tibet and China, south to the Caucasus, Turkey. Also in North America and south to .
Behavior
The larvae feed on species of ''Galium'', ''Stellaria'', ''Campanula'' and ''Cirsium''.References:
Some text fragments are auto parsed from Wikipedia.
