Upperside is shiny coppery red with small black spots and black border.
Spots are larger in female.
Half-grown caterpillars hibernate. One flight from June-August. Mountain meadows, sagebrush flats, glacial cirques, rocky treeless areas. At high elevations in the Rocky Mountains from British Columbia south to New Mexico. G5 - Demonstrably secure globally, though it may be quite rare in parts of its range, especially at the periphery.