Lycaena phlaeas

"Common copper" redirects here. For the other butterfly with this common name, see Lycaena salustius.

Small copper

L. p. eleus Aston Upthorpe, Oxfordshire

Conservation status
Not evaluated (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Lycaenidae
Genus:	Lycaena
Species:	L. phlaeas
Binomial name
*Lycaena phlaeas* (L., 1761)
Synonyms
Papilio phlaeas Linnaeus, 1761 Papilio timeus Cramer, [1777] Papilio virgaureae Scopoli, 1763 Lycaena phlaeas aestivus Zeller, 1847 Polyommatus turcicus Gerhard, 1853 Heodes hyperborea Ford, 1924 Chrysophanus phloeas feildeni McLachlan, 1878 Heodes phlaeas coccineus Ford, 1924 Heodes phlaeas flavens Ford, 1924 Heodes ethiopica Poulton, 1922 Lycaena phlaeas f. polaris Courvoisier, 1911 Lycaena phlaeus chinensis ab. kurilensis Matsumura, 1928 Heodes kuriliphlaeas Bryk, 1942 Chrysophanus arethusa Dod, 1907 Chrysophanus abbottii Holland, 1892 Chrysophanus abbottii Holland, 1896 Polyommatus phlaeas var. comedarum Grum-Grshimailo, 1890 Polyommatus phlaeas var. oxiana Grum-Grshimailo, 1890 Polyommatus turanica Rühl, 1895 Lycaena phlaeas f. naruena Courvoisier, 1911 Heodes coccineus Ford, 1924 Chrysophanus pseudophlaeas Lucas, 1866 Chrysophanus phlaeas var. menelicki Thierry-Mieg, 1910 Heodes matsumuranus Bryk, 1946 Polyommatus hypophlaeas Boisduval, 1852 Lycaena americana Harris, 1862 Chrysophanus phlaeas var. americana ab. fasciata Strecker, 1878 Chrysophanus americanus ab. fulliolus Hulst, 1886 Lycaena bacchus Scudder, 1889 Heodes hypophlaeas ab. obliterata Scudder, 1889 Chrysophanus phlaeas adrienne Maynard, 1891 Heodes hypophlaeas f. caeca Reiff, 1913 Chrysophanus hypohplaeas ab. octomaculata Dean, 1918 Heodes hypophlaeas hypophlaeas ab. banksi Watson & Comstock, 1920 Heodes hypophlaeas ab. fulvus Rummel, 1929 Heodes hypophlaeas ab. neui Rummel, 1929 Hesperia eleus Fabricius, 1798 Lycaena phlaeas f. caerulopunctata Rühl, 1895 Chrysophanus phlaeas ab. oberthuri Blachier, 1908 Lycaena shima Gabriel, 1954

Lycaena phlaeas, the small copper, American copper, or common copper, is a butterfly of the Lycaenids or gossamer-winged butterfly family. According to Guppy and Shepard (2001), its specific name phlaeas is said to be derived either from the Greek phlego, "to burn up" or from the Latin floreo, "to flourish".

Description

The upperside forewings are a bright orange with a dark outside edge border and with eight or nine black spots. The hindwings are dark with an orange border. Some females also have a row of blue spots inside the orange border and are known as form caeruleopunctata. The undersides are patterned in a similar way but are paler. The black spots on the forewings are outlined in yellow and the dark colouring is replaced by a pale brownish grey. The hindwings are the same brown/grey colour with small black dots and a narrow orange border. The caterpillars (larvae) are usually green, but some have a purple stripe down the middle of the back and along each side.

L. p. eleus caeruleopunctata
Oxfordshire, UK
L. p. phlaeus male
Amarante, Portugal

Range

It is widespread and common across Europe, Asia, and North America, and also found in North Africa south through to Ethiopia.

It can be found almost anywhere in south/central England and Wales although never, it seems, in large numbers. Its distribution becomes more patchy in northern England, Scotland and Ireland.

Habitat

It is found in a wide variety range of habitats from chalk downlands, heathland, woodland clearings to churchyards and waste ground in cities.

Habits

In bright sun it is a very active little butterfly with the males setting up small territories which they will defend vigorously against rival males or indeed any unlucky passing insect. Even the shadow of a large bird passing overhead is enough to elicit a response. Females are pursued and mating usually occurs in vegetation.

Life cycle

The eggs are laid singly and conspicuously on the upperside of food plant leaves and the young caterpillar feeds on the underside of the leaf creating "windows" by leaving the upper epidermis of the leaf untouched. Pupation takes place in the leaf litter and the pupa is thought to be tended by ants. There are between two and three broods a year, fewer further north. In exceptionally good years, a fourth brood sometimes occurs in the south and adults can still be seen flying into November. The species overwinters as a caterpillar.

Egg
Larva

Host plants

Depending on the habitat, common sorrel (Rumex acetosa) and sheep's sorrel (Rumex acetosella) are the two main food plants, although other docks (Rumex species) are occasionally used.

Systematics

Lycaena phlaeas belongs to the subgenus Thersamolycaena of the genus Lycaena. The species is in turn divided into several subspecies:

L. p. hibernica Goodson, 1948 — Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland
L. p. eleus Fabricius, 1798 — England, Wales, Scotland
L. p. phlaeas Linnaeus, 1761 — Europe, western Siberia, Caucasus, South Caucasus (type locality = Sweden)
L. p. polaris Courvoisier, 1911 — northern Ural Mountains, northern Siberia, Chukotka Peninsula (Russia)
L. p. kamtschatica Gorbunov, 1994 — Kamchatka Peninsula (Russia)
L. p. ganalica Gorbunov, 1995 — Kamchatka Peninsula (Russia)
L. p. daimio (Seitz, [1909]) — south Kurile Islands, Sakhalin (Russian islands)
L. p. hypophlaeas (Boisduval, 1852) — Altai Mountains, southern Siberia, Amur (Russia–NW China border region), northern Ussuri (adjacent to Amur)
L. p. chinensis (Felder, 1862) — southern Ussuri
L. p. oxiana (Grum-Grshimailo, 1890) — Kopet Dag mountains, Alai Mountains, Ghissar-Darvaz, Tian Shan mountains
L. p. comedarum (Grum-Grshimailo, 1890) — eastern Pamir Mountains
L. p. stygiana Butler, 1880 — western Pamir Mountains
L. p. shima Gabriel, 1954 — Arabia
Lycanea phlaeas pseudophlaeas (Lucas, 1866) — Ethiopia, Uganda
L. p. ethiopica (Poulton, 1922) — Ruwenzori Mountains (SW Uganda)
L. p. abbottii (Holland, 1892) — Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi
L. p. flavens (Ford, 1924) — Tibet
L. p. coccinea (Ford, 1924)
L. p. americana
L. p. arethusa (Dod, 1907) — Alberta
L. p. arctodon Ferris, 1974 — Montana
L. p. feildeni (McLachlan, 1878) — Ellesmere
L. p. alpestris Emmel & Pratt, 1998 — California

Subspecies daimio, Osaka, Japan
Germany
Germany
Subspecies phlaeas
In Tokyo, Japan

References

Asher, Jim, Martin Warren, Richard Fox, Paul Harding, Gaile Jeffcoate & Stephen Jeffcoate (Eds) (2001) The Millennium Atlas of Butterflies in Britain and Ireland. Oxford University Press.
Darby, Gene (1958). What is a Butterfly. Chicago: Benefic Press. p. 34.
Dempster, J.P. & A.M. Emmet (1990) Lycaena phlaeas (Linnaeus). Pp. 134–139 in A. Maitland Emmet, John Heath et al. The Butterflies of Great Britain and Ireland. The Moths and Butterflies of Great Britain and Ireland vol. 7, part 1. Harley Books, Colchester, UK.
Evans, W.H. (1932). The Identification of Indian Butterflies (2nd ed.). Mumbai, India: Bombay Natural History Society.
Gaonkar, Harish (1996). Butterflies of the Western Ghats, India (including Sri Lanka) - A Biodiversity Assessment of a Threatened Mountain System. Bangalore, India: Centre for Ecological Sciences.
Gay, Thomas; Kehimkar, Isaac David; Punetha, Jagdish Chandra (1992). Common Butterflies of India. Nature Guides. Bombay, India: World Wide Fund for Nature-India by Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195631647.
Guppy, C.S. and Shepard, J. (2001) Butterflies of British Columbia British Columbia Museum, Canada.
Haribal, Meena (1992). The Butterflies of Sikkim Himalaya and Their Natural History. Gangtok, Sikkim, India: Sikkim Nature Conservation Foundation.
Kunte, Krushnamegh (2000). Butterflies of Peninsular India. India, A Lifescape. Hyderabad, India: Universities Press. ISBN 978-8173713545.
Tomlinson, David & Rob Still (2002) Britain's Butterflies. WildGuides, Old Basing, UK.
Wynter-Blyth, Mark Alexander (1957). Butterflies of the Indian Region. Bombay, India: Bombay Natural History Society. ISBN 978-8170192329.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lycaena phlaeas.

Wikispecies has information related to: Lycaena phlaeas

Lycaena at Markku Savela's website on Lepidoptera

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