Small and fragile with translucent wings. Underside of both wings with yellow-rimmed black submarginal eyespots. Males patrol for females, who lay eggs singly on host plants.
Caterpillars eat leaves and the fourth stage hibernates.
Flight lasts only about 10 days in late June to early July. Sedge swamps, marshes. Isolated populations in southern Michigan, northern Indiana, northern New Jersey, and south-central North Carolina. This sensitive butterfly is declining in most of its range, and has already disappeared from former habitat in northeastern Ohio and Maryland. Collecting may eradicate its small colonies.