Butterfly of Month - Small Copper

This is the only butterfly with a really metallic colouring that you may come across during walks in the Blackwater Valley. It can be found in areas where Sheep Sorrel and sometimes Common Sorrel are growing, such as in the Moor Green Lakes, Rowhill and Fleet Pond Nature Reserves.

Both sexes have coppery forewings with black spots, with the forewings of the male being slightly more pointed. The upper hindwings are black with coppery edges and their undersides are a light brown shade. Despite their colouration, they are members of the Lycaendiae family (the ‘blues’).

Eggs are laid singly (not in clusters), but you may find more than one egg on undersides of Sorrel leaves. They hatch within a fortnight and the green caterpillars eat furrows in the leaves, using these as resting places. Only after their second moults do the caterpillars eat right through the leaves.

The first generation pupate early in April, the second in late June and the third in September. With so many generations, it is not surprising that the butterflies can be seen on the wing at almost any time between mid-April and October.

Small Coppers spend the winter as caterpillars. They spin layers of silk under the Sorrel leaves and hibernate within them until March. Some have been known to move and even feed, if we get some really warm winter days.

When you spot the butterflies, which have a one inch (25mm) wingspan, during the summer, you may find their flight difficult to follow. They are one of our most active species and, although their flights tend to be short, they are usually very swift with several directional changes. When trying to follow one to take a photograph in the car park area at Fleet Pond on one occasion,
it took me over 20 minutes to track it down and finally take a photograph when it stopped on a Ragwort flower.

Peter Martin

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Peter Martin is the author of Blackwater Valley Butterflies a full-colour guide about the 32 different butterfly species butterflies found in the Valley.           More details >>>