''Lycaena epixanthe'', also known as the bog copper or cranberry-bog copper, is a North American species of

butterfly Butterflies are winged insects from the lepidopteran superfamily Papilionoidea, characterized by large, often brightly coloured wings that often fold together when at rest, and a conspicuous, fluttering flight. The oldest butterfly fossi ...

in the family

Lycaenidae Lycaenidae is the second-largest family (biology), family of butterflies (behind Nymphalidae, brush-footed butterflies), with over 6,000 species worldwide, whose members are also called gossamer-winged butterflies. They constitute about 30% of ...

. Adults like to sip drops of dew clinging to leaves and almost exclusively nectar on their host plant,

cranberries Cranberries are a group of evergreen dwarf shrubs or trailing vines in the subgenus ''Oxycoccus'' of the genus ''Vaccinium''. Cranberries are low, creeping shrubs or vines up to long and in height; they have slender stems that are not t ...

. Because of this, bog coppers will spend their entire lives within the area of a single acid bog.Rick Cech and Guy Tudor (2005). ''Butterflies of the East Coast''. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ. Even though their flight is weak and close to the ground, bog coppers are hard to catch because of the habitat in which they live.Jim P. Brock and Kenn Kaufman (2003). ''Butterflies of North America''. Houghton Mifflin, New York, NY. Also, 85% of the bog coppers life span is spent in the egg. It is listed as a species of special concern in the US state of

Connecticut Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...

Description

The bog copper is the smallest North American copper. The upper side of the males wings is dark gray-brown with a purplish sheen (it glows under

UV light Ultraviolet radiation, also known as simply UV, is electromagnetic radiation of wavelengths of 10–400 nanometers, shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-rays. UV radiation is present in sunlight and constitutes about 10% of t ...

very strongly). The male has very few black basal spots on the fore wing. The hind wing outer margin has orange markings. The upper side of the females wings is very similar to the males except the female has a lighter purplish iridescence. The underside of the wings in both sexes varies from whitish-gray to yellowish-tan. The wingspan measures .

Similar species

Similar species in the bog copper's range include the purplish copper (''

Lycaena helloides ''Lycaena helloides'', the purplish copper, is a butterfly of the family Lycaenidae. It is found in North America from the Great Lakes area to British Columbia, south to Baja California. The wingspan is 30–38 mm. Adults are generally on ...

'') and the dorcas copper (''

Lycaena dorcas ''Lycaena dorcas'' is a species of butterfly in the family Lycaenidae, the gossamer-winged butterflies. Its common names include dorcas copper and cinquefoil copper. The species was first described by William Kirby in 1837. It is native to Nort ...

''). Another butterfly that is similar to the ''Lycaena epixanthe'' is the '' Lycaena hetereonea'', except the blue color is on the upper side and the brown color is on the underside of the wing. The purplish copper is larger, the female has a lot of orange on the upper side, and both sexes have a conspicuous orange submarginal line on the upper side of the hind wing. The dorcas is larger, the male has more black spots on the upper side, the female has more orange on the upper side, and the underside of the wings is pinkish-brown or tan with a red-orange hind wing submarginal line.

Habitat

The only habitat in which bog coppers occur are acid bogs with cranberries. Thus conservation of acid bog habitats is essential for this butterfly.

Flight

This species is on the wing mostly from late June to early August (mid-June to mid-July near

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

, mid-June to early July in

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

, and mid-June to mid-August in

Maine Maine ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Contiguous United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and ...

).James A. Scott (1986). ''The Butterflies of North America''. Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA.

Life cycle

Males perch on low foliage (usually cranberry) all day from 10:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M. to await females. If a male sees a female passing by, he will pursue her. When she lands, the male will land behind her, vibrate his wings, and then they will mate. If the female has already mated or does not want to mate, she will vibrate her wings and then the male will leave. Females lay their

egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the ...

s singly on the underside of host plant leaves a few inches above the bog surface. The whitish egg can withstand flooding. The

larva A larva (; : larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into their next life stage. Animals with indirect development such as insects, some arachnids, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase ...

is bluish-green with a darker green middorsal stripe. The bog copper larva is the only copper that feeds on cranberries.Thomas J. Allen, Jim P. Brock and Jeffrey Glassberg (2005). ''Caterpillars in the Field and Garden''. Oxford University Press, New York, NY. The

chrysalis A pupa (; : pupae) is the life stage of some insects undergoing transformation between immature and mature stages. Insects that go through a pupal stage are holometabolous: they go through four distinct stages in their life cycle, the stages the ...

is pale yellow-green to green with brown and white markings. Rarely, the chrysalis can be solid dark purple. The egg

overwinters Overwintering is the process by which some organisms pass through or wait out the winter season, or pass through that period of the year when "winter" conditions (cold or sub-zero temperatures, ice, snow, limited food supplies) make normal activi ...

, usually under water with the larva fully developed inside. It has 1

brood Brood may refer to: Nature * Brood, a collective term for offspring * Brooding, the incubation of bird eggs by their parents * Bee brood, the young of a beehive * Individual broods of North American periodical cicadas: ** Brood X, the largest br ...

per year.

Food plants

The larvae feed upon shrubby cranberries in the heath family (

Ericaceae The Ericaceae () are a Family (biology), family of flowering plants, commonly known as the heath or heather family, found most commonly in acidic and infertile growing conditions. The family is large, with about 4,250 known species spread acros ...

). Here is a list of host plants used by the bog copper: * Large cranberry, ''

Vaccinium macrocarpon ''Vaccinium macrocarpon'', also called large cranberry, American cranberry and bearberry, is a North American species of cranberry in the subgenus '' Oxycoccus''. The name cranberry comes from shape of the flower stamen, which looks like a cran ...

'' * Small cranberry, ''

Vaccinium oxycoccos ''Vaccinium oxycoccos'' is a species of cranberry in the heath family. It is known as small cranberry, marshberry, bog cranberry, swamp cranberry, or (particularly in Britain) just cranberry. It occurs broadly across cooler climates in the tempe ...

'' The adults feed on water and nectar from cranberry flowers.

References

External links

Bog copper
Butterflies of Canada {{Taxonbar, from=Q3007060 Butterflies of North America epixanthe Butterflies described in 1835 Taxa named by John Eatton Le Conte