The Small Copper (Chrysophanus Phlæas)
This little butterfly is very smart, in activity as well as appearance. In colour it is very similar to the last species, but both sexes are spotted with black on the fore wings, the outer series of six spots forming a very irregular row; the hind wings are black, with a wavy orange-red band on the outer margin.
There is considerable variation, and it is, therefore, deemed advisable to give a number of figures representing some of the more striking aberrations. The three figures at the top of Plate 101 depict the normal male and female; the latter sex is Fig. 3. For the loan of the other specimens (Figs. 4-12) my thanks are due to Mr. E. Sabine, who has a very fine and extensive series of varieties of this butterfly. Other examples of aberration on the under side are shown on Plate 119. Blue spots are sometimes found on the hind wings; these are placed near the orange-red band, and occasionally they attain a good size. Specimens much suffused with blackish sometimes occur; these are referable to var. eleus, which is the usual summer form in some of the warmer countries abroad. A very rare form is that known as schmidtii (Fig. 7), in which the ground colour of the fore wings and the band on the hind wings are silvery white instead of orange or coppery-red. A modification of this form which is hardly less rare has a creamy tint. Straw-coloured or pale golden specimens are rather more frequently met with. The colour of the hind wings in fresh specimens is sometimes steely-grey, but blackish is the more usual hue; the band on the outer area, which as a rule agrees in colour with the fore wings, varies in width a good deal, and occasionally is more or less obscured by the blackish ground colour. The arrangement, size, and shape of the black spots, both above and below, are subject to much vagary, sometimes of a very striking kind, as, for example, when the spots of the outer series on the fore wings are united with the discal pair and form a large irregular blotch. A remarkable specimen taken some years ago in the Isle of Wight had a small patch of copper with a black spot in it on the under side. This gave one the idea of a clumsy attempt at patching, but as I happened to take that particular specimen, I know that it had not been tampered with. Gynandrous specimens of this butterfly sometimes occur, but these are very rare.
The egg is of a yellowish-white colour at first, and afterwards becomes greyish; the pattern on the shell, which resembles network, is always whiter.
The caterpillar is green and similar in tint to the leaf of dock or sorrel upon which it feeds. It is clothed with short greyish hair which arises from white dots; the dorsal line is brownish-olive, and the ring divisions, especially along the back, are well defined. Head very small, pale brownish, marked with blackish, drawn into the first ring of the body when resting. The legs and prolegs are tinged with pink, and sometimes the body is marked with pink.
The chrysalis is pale brown, sometimes tinged with greenish, and freckled with darker brown; there is a dark line along the middle of the thorax and body, the wing cases are streaked with blackish, and the body is dotted with black. Attached by the tail and loose silken threads around the body to a leaf or stem.
There seem to be three broods of this species in most years: the first is on the wing in May, sometimes in April; the second in July or early August; and the third in early October. It is not a difficult species to rear from the egg, and as varieties appear to be most frequent in the third brood, the eggs should be obtained from females of the second brood. Dock and sorrel (Rumex) are the food-plants of the caterpillar, and these are most useful in a growing condition.
The butterfly frequents all kinds of open situations, and is fond of basking upon flowers, more particularly those of the Compositæ, from which vantage ground it dashes with great alertness at any other small butterfly that may happen to fly that way. Whether these seeming attacks are really due to pugnacity, as has been stated by some writers, or are merely of a sportive character, is not altogether clear. As, however, the meeting of the two butterflies usually results, when both are Small Coppers, in a series of aërial evolutions by the pair, it would seem that there is a good deal of playfulness in the business. After the gambol is over, one butterfly may dart off with the other in hot pursuit, and then both move so rapidly that their course is difficult to follow. If the butterfly intercepted happens to be a Blue or a Small Heath, the Copper returns to the flower from which it started, and prepares for another raid when the opportunity offers. It occurs throughout the United Kingdom, but in Scotland it does not extend northwards beyond the Caledonian Canal.
Abroad it is found throughout the Palæarctic Region, and is represented in North America by the form hypophlæas.