Small Copper

• The males are fiercely territorial: they perch on a high point and shoot out at any passing insect, including butterflies far larger than themselves.
• It has one of the widest distributions of any butterfly in the world: it occupies Europe, Asia, North Africa and much of North America.
• Summer generations tend to be darker than spring ones, a change linked to the temperature during the development of the chrysalis.
• It is tiny but striking: the forewings are a bright coppery orange with black spots, and the male aggressively defends a small sunny territory from which he flies out to intercept everything that passes, including butterflies far larger than himself.
• It has several generations a year, and the late-summer ones tend to be darker: the temperature during the development of the chrysalis determines the intensity of the black.
• It is one of the most widely distributed butterflies in the world, present on three continents.
• The caterpillar is green and slug-like, with a retractable head, an appearance very different from that of a typical caterpillar and one common throughout the lycaenid family.

Skeleton type

Invertebrate - chitin exoskeleton (insect)

Habitat & environment

Dry meadows, wasteland, verges and disturbed ground

Sources consulted: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lycaena_phlaeas

Best time: Spring to autumn, with several generations a year