Small Copper aberration

[millerd]

I don't know if this one has a name...

Seen today (7th July) at Denbies Hillside.

I thought it was a Gatekeeper at first, until it flew around in fast circles chasing other butterflies and perching - finally deciding on this particular resting point where luckily it was happy to sit for some while.

Dave

[Allan.W.]

Very unusual Dave …………….Nice find ,don,t think I,ve ever seen one quite that dark !...……………….Nice One .!
Allan.W.

[essexbuzzard]

I agree with Allan, it’s a great find. Very like the small Coppers I see in Southern Europe. There I believe it’s a response to high temperatures. That’s surely not the case here!

[Allan.W.]

How about AB;Nigroapicata …………………………….just a thought . Allan.W.

[Katrina]

Wow! That is certainly dark. Good spot!

[Neil Freeman]

That is a cracking ab. Dave

I have seen a couple of other impressive Small Copper abs posted recently on social media along with a fair number of White Admiral and Comma abs plus a couple of Purple Hairstreak ones. I reckon they must be weather related with the hot weather we had earlier in May and then the drop to cooler conditions in June.

Cheers,

Neil.

[Pete Eeles]

I've recently updated the aberrations pages with useful (external) links: https://www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/aberrat ... e=original

On this basis, this could be an extreme example of ab. fuscata: https://data.nhm.ac.uk/dataset/collecti ... a11e68f68e

or possibly ab. brunnescens: http://www.britishbutterflyaberrations. ... berrations

Cheers,

- Pete

[bugboy]

That is indeed quite a spectacular Small Copper

That is a cracking ab. Dave

I have seen a couple of other impressive Small Copper abs posted recently on social media along with a fair number of White Admiral and Comma abs plus a couple of Purple Hairstreak ones. I reckon they must be weather related with the hot weather we had earlier in May and then the drop to cooler conditions in June.

Cheers,

Neil.

We had an almost identical weather pattern last year which led to a glut of dark summer abs including Black Admirals, SWF and Purple Emperor.

[Wurzel]

Crickey Dave that is a stunner of an aberrant

Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel

[millerd]

Thank you everyone for the great comments about a terrific little butterfly.

Thank you also for the pointers towards naming the aberration involved. It does resemble photos I've seen of very dusky summer Mediterranean Small Coppers (as mentioned by Mark (EB)) where the colour form is a result of the prevailing heat. It is quite likely that this one was a pupa during the mini-heatwave in the last week of June, and maybe somehow was more exposed to it at a key point in its metamorphosis than others nearby - leading to its unusually extreme colouration.

As for historical named aberrations, of those suggested the closest in my mind is ab. brunnescens. In this one, the dark scaling also affects the hindwing bands, considerably subduing the orange colour. However, comparing a shining living butterfly with pinned specimens over 100 years old does not really provide a true picture, and I suspect that with this sort of extreme variation every individual butterfly will be different.

Certainly one I will revisit a few times, I think.

Cheers,

Dave

[David M]

Top quality, Dave. One of the best I've seen.