| Sooty Copper (Lycaena tityrus (Poda, 1761)) |
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Scientific name: Lycaena tityrus (Poda, 1761) Common name: Sooty Copper French name: Cuivré fuligineux, Argus myope. Order: Lepidoptera Suborder: Rhopalocera Family: Lycaenidae Subfamily: Lycaeninae Wingspan: 23-30 mm. Biotope: Damp meadows, flower meadows, sandy areas. Geographic area: Europe from the North Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, missing in Great Britain, Asia Minor, Asia east to the Altai mountains. Flight time: April to May then August to September. Number of generations : 2 (even sometimes 3). Caterpillar: Small green caterpillar. Host plant: Common Sorrel (Rumex acetosa), Red Sorrel (Rumex acetosella) and probably other plants of the Rumex genus. |
The Sooty Copper shows an important sexual dimorphism and variations between different broods and subspecies. Males of the most common subspecies, Lycaena tityrus tityrus, have a blackish brown upper side of the wings, with a violet sheen, black spots and a few submarginal orange spots on the hind wings which sometimes extend to the fore wings depending on the brood. The underside of the wings is a yellowish grey colour and strongly punctuated with black spots on the fore wings and on the hind wings. The post discal spots on the fore wing are not regularly aligned. The upper side of the females' fore wings is an orange colour with black spots but without any broad dark margin. The upper side of the hind wings is greyish brown with rounded lunules on the margin. Butterflies of the Lycaena tityrus subalpina subspecies, which are observed in the Alps as mentioned by the scientific name, have a more greyish underside of the wings. Males are almost missing the orange submarginal spots on the upper side of the wings. The upper side of females' wings are blackish brown. Sooty Coopers overwinter as caterpillars at the second or third development stage. Having a look at the underside of the wings is a good mean to avoid confusion with other similar species. The Small Copper (Lycaena phlaeas) does not show an important black punctuation on the underside of the hind wings, the Scarce Copper (Lycaena virgaurea ) shows white discal spots there. The Purple-edged Copper (Lycaena hippothoe) shows relatively well aligned black discal spots on the fore wings. Female Purple-shot Coppers (Lycaena alciphron) have orange scales on the underside of the fore wings. |
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I organized a small bird watching session at a reasonable distance from a heronry in the hope of photographing birds in flight without disturbing the nesting site… and I came back home with photos of butterflies! We are not here in the Alps. The brown colour of the upper side of the wings indicate one male of the Lycaena tityrus tityrus subspecies. |
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It is no so often that we can observe both upper side and under side of the wings in the field. You can clearly see that the large black post-discal spots on the fore wings are not regularly aligned. |
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I need to come back over there to shoot pictures of females … and I will get back home with pictures of Herons in flight ;-) |
André Bon December 2020