www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

This little fellow was at Horsey Gap on the Norfolk coast today.
There were a few of them around but they didn't really open their wings , only to escape my camera lens!
What is it?

Thanks

Angie

Small Copper I think, Angie

Regards, Chris

Well I'm not sure as I have seen lots of small coppers but they never looked like this.
This one seemed slightly smaller & never opened its wings despite sunshine.

Anyone else think Small Copper??


Angie

Your Butterfly is a Small Copper and looking at my Collins Butterfly Guide it looks like L p polaris [ Arctic Fennoscandia ] but wait for the far more knowledgable as i am bound to have got it wrong. Steve

Definitely Small Copper and, given the location, ssp. eleus. There's a similar shot here:

http://www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/image.ph ... EARED}.jpg

The main difference seems to be the ground colour - your individual seems to be particularly pale. This could be the light, or the weather!

Cheers,

- Pete

roundwood123 wrote:Your Butterfly is a Small Copper and looking at my Collins Butterfly Guide it looks like L p polaris [ Arctic Fennoscandia ] but wait for the far more knowledgable as i am bound to have got it wrong. Steve

Told you I should stick to Moths.

Small Copper it is then.
It was the pale colour what confused me Thats not hard to do !!

It did seem to behave different to my local Small Coppers, but I guess thats because he was having a day at the seaside

Thanks for all your help

Angie

While we are on subject of Small coppers, is this hibernica subspecies? It was found in a glasshouse in N.I. so I assume it is and it had the blue spots on upperside of ab caeruleopunctata as well. At first when I saw the above pics, I thought it was similar to it, but its not:

Dave McCormick wrote:While we are on subject of Small coppers, is this hibernica subspecies? It was found in a glasshouse in N.I. so I assume it is and it had the blue spots on upperside of ab caeruleopunctata as well.

Hi Dave - yes, definitely hibernica. In fact, there's a general shortage of Irish subspecies shots on the species pages ... so if you'd like to donate shots such as these, I'm sure we'd all be appreciative!

Cheers,

- Pete

I e-mailed you some pics of the small copper, enjoy