Common in the UK, but although widespread it does not seem quite so numerous in France even in the south. There does seem to be a lot of variation, with some (very) vestigial post-discal spots on the unh, as indicated by these examples. I do not recall there being anything like this degree of variation in UK populations.

I also feel that the French specimens are much brighter, especially the orange of the unf, than UK specimens. The southern form lyllus (see 3459) is much lighter and more sandy-coloured, and the discal line seems complete and with strong contrast either side.

observations

a nice bright orange unf when fresh.

a fresh specimen, with nice orange unf colouring and five rather vestigial unh ocelli.

a beautiful deep orange unf. There are two or three highly vestigial ocelli, almost non-existent.

a rather unusual specimen, with a slightly concave forewing margin (compare with the others on this page), a very large unf ocellus, and a series of six quite well-developed unh ocelli. I have never seen any other pamphilus with even remotely similar ocelli; four are in an almost-perfectly straight line and some are clearly ringed; as usual in most Satyridae species, the ocelli in s2, s3 and s6 are the best developed.

the unh ground colour is a pale smoky brown, with a strong and irregular discal line, and a strong pale-ringed unf ocellus. This appears to be an excellent match for the form lyllus which, according to T&L, occurs in SW Europe, and is described as light sandy brown unh basal and discal areas, ocelli vestigial. 3459 matches the illustration and description very well, so my feeling is rather that the range of lyllus is wider (i.e. T&L is wrong on this point) rather than that 3459 is not lyllus.