Lycaena Phlaeas
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''Lycaena phlaeas'', the small copper, American copper, or common copper, is a
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 ...
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 (''phlégo''), "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
caterpillar Caterpillars ( ) are the larval stage of members of the order Lepidoptera (the insect order comprising butterflies and moths). As with most common names, the application of the word is arbitrary, since the larvae of sawflies (suborder ...
s (
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 ...
e) are usually green, but some have a purple stripe down the middle of the back and along each side. Small copper (Lycaena phlaeas eleus) 2.jpg, ''L. p. eleus''
Oxfordshire Oxfordshire ( ; abbreviated ''Oxon'') is a ceremonial county in South East England. The county is bordered by Northamptonshire and Warwickshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the east, Berkshire to the south, and Wiltshire and Glouceste ...
File:Small copper (Lycaena phlaeas eleus) ab. caeruleopunctata.jpg, male ''L. p. eleus'' ab. ''caeruleopunctata''
Oxfordshire Oxfordshire ( ; abbreviated ''Oxon'') is a ceremonial county in South East England. The county is bordered by Northamptonshire and Warwickshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the east, Berkshire to the south, and Wiltshire and Glouceste ...
File:Lycaena phlaeas - slow motion - Kanagawa Japan - 2023-07-21.webm, ''L. p. eleus'' taking flight
Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
File:Small copper (Lycaena phlaeas) female.jpg, female ''L. p. eleus''
Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (, abbreviated ''Bucks'') is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-east, Hertfordshir ...
File:Small copper (Lycaena phlaeas phlaeas) male underside autumn brood.jpg, ''L. p. phlaeas'' male
Amarante, Portugal Amarante () is a Concelho, municipality and municipal seat in the Tâmega e Sousa subregion Norte Region, Portugal, in northern Portugal. The population in 2011 was 56,264, in an area of . The city itself had a population of 11,261 in 2001. The cit ...
File:Small copper (Lycaena phlaeas pseudophlaeas) underside.jpg, ''L. p. pseudophlaeas''
Bale Mountains The Bale Mountains (also known as the Urgoma Mountains) are mountain ranges in the Oromia Region of southeast Ethiopia, south of the Awash River, part of the Ethiopian Highlands. They include Mount Tullu Demtu, Tullu Demtu, the fourth-highest mou ...
,
Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...


Range

It is a
holarctic The Holarctic realm is a biogeographic realm that comprises the majority of habitats found throughout the continents in the Northern Hemisphere. It corresponds to the floristic Boreal Kingdom. It includes both the Nearctic zoogeographical reg ...
species, widespread and common across Europe, Asia, North America, and also found in
North Africa North Africa (sometimes Northern Africa) is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region. However, it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of t ...
south through to
Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...
. It can be found almost anywhere in south/central
England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
and
Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...
although never, it seems, in large numbers. Its distribution becomes more patchy in northern England,
Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
and
Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...
.


Habitat

It is found in a wide variety range of habitats from chalk downlands,
heathland A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and is characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a coole ...
, and
woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with woody plants (trees and shrubs), or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the '' plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunli ...
clearings, to
churchyard In Christian countries, a churchyard is a patch of land adjoining or surrounding a church (building), church, which is usually owned by the relevant church or local parish itself. In the Scots language and in both Scottish English and Ulster S ...
s and waste ground in cities.


Habits

It is most active in bright sun, with males setting up small territories which they will defend vigorously against rival males or any passing insect. Even the shadow of a large bird passing overhead can be 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 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 th ...
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. Image:Lycaena phlaeas egg.jpg, Egg Image:Lycaena phlaeas larva.jpg, 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 ''
Rumex The docks and sorrels, genus ''Rumex'', are a genus of about 200 species of annual, biennial, and perennial herbs in the buckwheat family, Polygonaceae. Members of this genus are very common perennial herbs with a native almost worldwide distri ...
'' species are occasionally used.


Systematics

''Lycaena phlaeas'' belongs to the subgenus ''Lycaena'' and is the type-species of genus ''Lycaena''. The species is in turn divided into several
subspecies In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...
, although many probably lack reason to be named, and others may merit an elevation of rank to be considered autonomous species: * ''L. p. hibernica'' Goodson, 1948
Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland, with a population of about 5.4 million. ...
,
Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...
* ''L. p. eleus'' Fabricius, 1798 — England, Wales, Scotland * ''L. p. phlaeas'' Linnaeus, 1761 — Europe, western
Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...
,
Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region spanning Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is situated between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, comprising parts of Southern Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. The Caucasus Mountains, i ...
,
South Caucasus The South Caucasus, also known as Transcaucasia or the Transcaucasus, is a geographical region on the border of Eastern Europe and West Asia, straddling the southern Caucasus Mountains. The South Caucasus roughly corresponds to modern Armenia, ...
(type locality =
Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...
) * ''L. p. polaris'' Courvoisier, 1911 — northern
Ural Mountains The Ural Mountains ( ),; , ; , or simply the Urals, are a mountain range in Eurasia that runs north–south mostly through Russia, from the coast of the Arctic Ocean to the river Ural (river), Ural and northwestern Kazakhstan.
, northern Siberia, Chukotka Peninsula (
Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
) * ''L. p. kamtschatica'' Gorbunov, 1994
Kamchatka Peninsula The Kamchatka Peninsula (, ) is a peninsula in the Russian Far East, with an area of about . The Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Okhotsk make up the peninsula's eastern and western coastlines, respectively. Immediately offshore along the Pacific ...
(Russia) * ''L. p. ganalica'' Gorbunov, 1995 — Kamchatka Peninsula (Russia) * ''L. p. daimio'' (Seitz,
909 __NOTOC__ Year 909 ( CMIX) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Britain * King Edward the Elder and his sister, Princess Æthelflæd of Mercia, raid Danish East Anglia and bring back the relics o ...
— south Kurile Islands,
Sakhalin Sakhalin ( rus, Сахали́н, p=səxɐˈlʲin) is an island in Northeast Asia. Its north coast lies off the southeastern coast of Khabarovsk Krai in Russia, while its southern tip lies north of the Japanese island of Hokkaido. An islan ...
(Russian islands) * ''L. p. gonpaensis'' (Yoshino, 019North Yunnan, China * ''L. p. hypophlaeas'' (Boisduval, 1852) — N California Sierra Nevada Mts. (Type location) and White Mts.,
Altai Mountains The Altai Mountains (), also spelled Altay Mountains, are a mountain range in Central Asia, Central and East Asia, where Russia, China, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan converge, and where the rivers Irtysh and Ob River, Ob have their headwaters. The ...
, southern Siberia,
Amur The Amur River () or Heilong River ( zh, s=黑龙江) is a perennial river in Northeast Asia, forming the natural border between the Russian Far East and Northeast China (historically the Outer Manchuria, Outer and Inner Manchuria). The 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 The Pamir Mountains are a Mountain range, range of mountains between Central Asia and South Asia. They are located at a junction with other notable mountains, namely the Tian Shan, Karakoram, Kunlun Mountains, Kunlun, Hindu Kush and the Himalaya ...
* ''L. p. stygiana'' Butler, 1880 — western Pamir Mountains * ''L. p. shima'' Gabriel, 1954
Arabia The Arabian Peninsula (, , or , , ) or Arabia, is a peninsula in West Asia, situated north-east of Africa on the Arabian plate. At , comparable in size to India, the Arabian Peninsula is the largest peninsula in the world. Geographically, the ...
* ''Lycanea phlaeas pseudophlaeas'' (Lucas, 1866)
Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...
,
Uganda Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the ...
* ''L. p. ethiopica'' (Poulton, 1922)
Ruwenzori Mountains The Rwenzori (also known as the Ruwenzori, Rwenzururu or Rwenjura) are a mountain range, range of mountains in eastern equatorial Africa, located on the border between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The highest peak of the Ruw ...
(SW Uganda) * ''L. p. abbottii'' (Holland, 1892)
Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...
,
Tanzania Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...
,
Malawi Malawi, officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northeast, and Mozambique to the east, south, and southwest. Malawi spans over and ...
* ''L. p. flavens'' (Ford, 1924) — Tibet * ''L. p. coccinea'' (Ford, 1924) * ''L. p. americana'' (Morris, 1862)Morris, John G (1862). Synopsis of the described Lepidoptera of North America Part 1. - Diurnal and Crepuscular Lepidoptera. Compiled for the Smithsonian Institution by John G. Morris, Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Washington D.C., 358 pp. 1862. — Nova Scotia and W. to Minnesota, and S. to: Virginia, Montane N Georgia, Missouri, Kansas, N Dakota. * ''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 Image:Lycaena phlaeas daimio1.jpg, Subspecies ''daimio'', Osaka, Japan Image:Kl feuerfalter1.jpg, Germany Image:Kl feuerfalter2.jpg, Germany Image:Common Copper (Lycaena phlaeas) I2 IMG 3282.jpg, Image:Lycaenidae - Lycaena phlaeas-1.JPG, Image:Lycaenidae - Lycaena phlaeas.JPG, Image:Lycaena phlaeas-01 (xndr).jpg, Subspecies ''phlaeas'' File: Small Copper Butterfly (Lycaena phlaeas).webm, In Tokyo, Japan


See also

* List of butterflies of India * List of butterflies of India (Lycaenidae) *
List of butterflies of Great Britain This is a list of butterfly, butterflies of Great Britain, including extinct, naturalised species and those of dubious origin. The list comprises butterfly species listed in ''The Moths and Butterflies of Great Britain and Ireland'' by Emmet ''et a ...


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. * * 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. * * * * Guppy, C.S. and Shepard, J. (2001) ''Butterflies of British Columbia'' British Columbia Museum, Canada. * * * Tomlinson, David & Rob Still (2002) ''Britain's Butterflies''. WildGuides, Old Basing, UK. * *


External links


''Lycaena''
at Markku Savela's website on Lepidoptera {{Authority control phlaeas Butterflies of Africa Butterflies of Asia Butterflies of Europe Butterflies of North America Butterflies described in 1761 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus Articles containing video clips