Blue-bordered Carpet

The wingspan is 22–28 mm. The ground colour of the forewings is milky white. The basal field is light brown to black brown. A large light brown to black-brown stain on the costa near the centre stands out. The intensity and shape of this spot can vary. From the apex area runs a blue-grey marginal band which continues on the hindwings usually in an attenuated form. A thin white squiggly line is visible in this band. The forewings and hindwings each show a black discal fleck, which can be sometimes be very unclear. "White, more glossy than in any succeeding species of the group, yet more thinly scaled than ocellata. Forewing with brown basal patch and anterior half of median band, both wings with more or less well-defined bluish-smoky distal border. — ab. parvula Retz. has, in addition a dark spot at the middle of the hindmargin of the forewing. — In ab. guttata Huene the median band is reduced to a mere spot surrounding the discal dot. — plumbata Curt. is a race which inhabits Scotland and the North of England. The median band is uninterrupted, or only very narrowly interrupted and the smoky dark bordering is usually intensified. Sometimes also there are traces of a narrow smoky band midway between the basal and median patches. — ab. …

The distribution area extends through western and central Europe including the British Isles, and continues through the temperate zone of the Palearctic to the Russian Far East Siberia and Japan. It rises to an elevation of 1500 metres in the Alps.