A common species almost everywhere. The last four photos show the form valezina, a variant of the female where both surfaces have a bronze-green suffusion, giving it a superficial similarity to the Cardinal (A. pandora). I have only seen one valezina in England, where it is comparatively infrequent, but in one small locality in Var, valezina consistently makes up around 30% of the female paphia population of 20-30, and this has been consistent every year for the past few years.

observations

a male, fresh and quite heavily marked.

a typical male with very heavy sex brands on veins 1-3 and a smaller one on s4.

a female of the nominate form, quite heavily marked.

a male, nice developed silvery-white unh streaks.

a male, very limited silvery-white streaks on the unh - contrast with 18246 from the same location and time.

a female of the form valezina, very heavily marked and appearing almost black in flight.

a female of the form valezina taking moisture from a damp mud puddle.

a female upperside of the form valezina.

T&L says there is a form argyrea which has no silver streaks on the unh and occurs in northern Italy and Spain, and 11591 matches the illustration of this in T&L quite closely. H&R refers to this form as anargyria. I am inclined to assume that it is an underside of the form valezina, but T&L does not give an illustration of this so I cannot be 100% certain, although I cannot see what else it could be, on the assumption that H&R is correct regarding the distribution of anargyria. If it is valezina, it has to be a female.