This close relative of the marbled white is found in Spain and North Africa, where it flies in hot, rocky, scrubby areas with grasses. It is a spring butterfly, flying from late March until June. All the pictures above were taken near Málaga in March and April. I saw them in several places, including a favourite hilltopping site, where they were strutting their stuff alongside Bath whites, green-striped whites, walls, long-tailed blues and other butterflies.

Other marbled whites that fly in Spain are the Iberian marbled white (Melanargia lachesis), the western marbled white (Melanargia occitanica) and Esper's marbled white (Melanargia russiae). The first of these is quite different (see here). Esper's marbled white, which I have yet to see, is also quite distinct, having heavier, infilled marks on the upperside hindwing and an underside hindwing similar to that of the marbled white (but with the band not broken at the cell end). The western marbled white has an underside hindwing broadly similar to that of the Spanish marbled white but with all the veins etched over in orange-brown. In The Spanish marbled white the veins are neatly black.

The caterpillars feed on various grasses and it is this stage that hibernates. The butterfly breeds up to about 1500m but may be found hilltopping much higher than this.