Small Copper
Lycaena phlaeas
Dark summer form, Val d'Aran, July 2005
Video frame taken in summer 2001 in UK
The first butterflies here were photographed in autumn in the UK, on the flowers of ragwort. The lower one is very clearly 'caerulopunctata' - in other words, it has a row of blue spots on the dark of the hindwing, just before the submarginal orange band. The upper insect is tattier, but also shows these spots. On the East Suffolk coast this form can be quite common. It is always worth checking and interesting to know roughly the frequency of caerulopunctata. In the south of Europe, and especially in hot summers and second (or third) broods, a form with the copper of the forewing more or less suffused with darker brown is worth looking out for.