American Copper

Since I've been showing Great Spangled Fritillaries this week, for Throwback Thursday let's dip into the photography archives to show a cool-looking butterfly from the past, an American Copper (aka Common Copper).

While the name might make you think I'm talking about a member of a US constabulary, the coppers are a subfamily of generally small butterflies. Though one source claimed they are an introduced species, most sources suggest it's more of an international butterfly than an invasive one. Similar to the Red Admiral and Painted Lady, it appears to be native to not just North America but also Eurasia and much of Africa. Though the species may be found across much of the world, its numerous subspecies tend to be more localized.

Though it's a fairly colorful butterfly it's easy to overlook due to its diminutive size. If you're familiar with the Spring/Summer Azures, they're approximately that size. When I got my pictures, I wasn't sure what I had gotten pictures of until looking at the at home.

It sounds like they frequently rest with their wings open, though my pictures were all of them with closed wings. The good thing about that is that the underside of the wings is more useful for identification; the bad thing is that you don't appreciate the coppery coloring as well when seeing the underside of the wings.

It's believed that ants help to raise American Copper caterpillars, protecting them and possibly herding them so that the ants will be able to harvest a sweet secretion these caterpillars produce. (This is very similar to the mutualism displayed by ants and aphids.

June 19, 2019 at the Willowwood Arboretum
Photo 43669056, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)


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