Found throughout Europe, northern Africa and in the east from Russia to West Asia. Numbers have declined and distribution has become fragmented in northern Europe in the last decades. Melitaea cinxia disappeared from the Finnish mainland in late 1970's, but lives in metapopulations on dry meadows on the Åland islands. Regarded as a threatened species in Finland. Overwinters as half-grown larvae in full-sib groups. Two mainhost plants in Finland are Plantago lanceolata and Veronica spicata. More information in Wikipedia.
More photos of M. cinxia.