The Mormon Fritillary is the smallest of the Fritillary butterflies with a wingspan of just 1.5-2.5 inches. The top side of the wing is bright orange with black and dark brown checkered pattern, and a black border. The underside of the wing has a similar pattern, but the colours are substantially paler, and in the erinnea subspecies the underside of the wing often has a rusty red-brown colour. The erinnea subspecies also often has blue eyes.

Sometimes, other larger Fritillary species can be mistaken for Monarch butterflies, however Monarchs have a tiger-striped, not checkered, wing pattern.