Small Copper

Small Copper butterfly - Amsterdam by ivomathieugaston

The Small Copper, American Copper or the Common Copper, Lycaena phlaeas, is a butterfly of the Lycaenids or Blues family. It is a common and widespread little butterfly easily identifiable in the UK. (There are similar species in continental Europe.)

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 pattenered 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, gray. 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.

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

Large Copper

Large Copper by Chris@184

The Large Copper (Lycaena dispar) is a European butterfly of the family Lycaenidae. The British subspecies of this butterfly (dispar) has been extinct for over 144 years (since 1864). Most of our knowledge of its life cycle and ecology comes from studies of the similar subspecies (batavus or batava) found in The Netherlands. The species can be identified by the silvery hindwing undersides, from the large specimens of the related, more common, drier habitat species Lycaena virgaureae and Lycaena hippothoe.

This is one of the butterfly species classified as a priority for protection and re-introduction in the UK under its national Biodiversity Action Plan. The species has been in severe decline in Britain due to the great reduction of fen habitat due to expansion of the human population.

In the rest of the Western Europe, the draining of wetlands and building and agricultural activity on shallow riverbanks has caused a strong decline. In Eastern Europe, undeveloped riverbanks and deltas are a habitat for the species, though even there it is somewhat threatened due increasing human influence on these areas.

There have been several reintroduction attempts to sites in both Britain and Ireland, but these have all ultimately failed. Research is now being conducted to see w