Calling Guy or Pete...
Calling Guy or Pete...
Trying to help out a friend who lives in France...she said it was brown with orange edges on top, and I'm thinking Lycaena tityrus - Sooty Copper...maybe subspecies subalpinus (Lafranchis page 108)(I'm waiting on an e-mail to let me know exactly where in France)
Martin.
Martin.
- Pete Eeles
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- Padfield
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That is a male sooty copper, of the lowland variety. The upperside of this form is exactly as you describe - dark brown with orange around the edges. The females are very variable but generally resemble small coppers in overall appearance (not in detail).
I have subalpinus around me (as well as some forms with plenty of orange around the edges) and the true male of this type is all dark. The female varies from being quite bright orange to being very heavily suffused. However, the shape of the hindwing, as well as the colour, tells me this is a male. The way the anal angle is pushed out in a straight line so it is the furthest part from the body is characteristic - the female wing is more naturally rounded.
Guy
I have subalpinus around me (as well as some forms with plenty of orange around the edges) and the true male of this type is all dark. The female varies from being quite bright orange to being very heavily suffused. However, the shape of the hindwing, as well as the colour, tells me this is a male. The way the anal angle is pushed out in a straight line so it is the furthest part from the body is characteristic - the female wing is more naturally rounded.
Guy
Thank you, Guy. Nice concept, but I think it will never happen - for two reasons:padfield wrote:Is there such a thing as a stand-up lepidopterist?
1. In one of Darwin's neglected papers, Lepidopterists can't be funny (and ornithologists never will be), he cites a particularly chronic form of stage-fright, apparently prevalent amongst lepidopterists: butterflies in the stomach.
2. It took me 24 hours to think of that!
Bryan