Small Copper

''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 (''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 caterpillars (larvae) 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
File:Small copper (Lycaena phlaeas eleus) ab. caeruleopunctata.jpg, male ''L. p. eleus'' ab. ''caeruleopunctata''
Oxfordshire
File:Small copper (Lycaena phlaeas) female.jpg, female ''L. p. eleus''
Buckinghamshire
File:Small copper (Lycaena phlaeas phlaeas) male underside autumn brood.jpg, ''L. p. phlaeas'' male
Amarante, Portugal
File:Small copper (Lycaena phlaeas pseudophlaeas) underside.jpg, ''L. p. pseudophlaeas''
Bale Mountains, Ethiopia

Range

It is a holarctic species, widespread and common across Europe, Asia, 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, and 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.

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'' 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, 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, 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, 909 — south Kurile Islands, Sakhalin (Russian islands)
* ''L. p. gonpaensis'' (Yoshino, 019 — North Yunnan, China
* ''L. p. hypophlaeas'' (Boisduval, 1852) — N California Sierra Nevada Mts. (Type location) and White Mts., 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'' (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

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

''Lycaena''
at Markku Savela's website on Lepidoptera

{{Taxonbar, from=Q740169

phlaeas
Butterflies of Africa
Butterflies of Asia
Butterflies of Europe
Butterflies of North America
Butterflies described in 1761
Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus
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