Large copper
The large copper is a butterfly that shines like a new copper coin. The males have bright orange wings with thin black edges. Underneath, its back wings are silvery blue with black spots and an orange band.
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Fun facts
Males and females look different. The females have wide dark brown edges and a row of dark spots on their front wings.
It used to live in England, but it died out there in 1864.
It is disappearing in north-western Europe because many wet meadows were drained, but in central and eastern Europe it is spreading.
In some places it has two families of butterflies a year, and in others only one.
Most asked questions about Large copper
?Does the large copper live in Estonia?
Yes. It is found in many European countries, including Estonia, Latvia and Finland.
?Why is the large copper rare?
Its wet meadow and marsh homes have been drained in many places, so it has lost places to live.
?How big is the large copper?
Its wings measure about 4.4 to 5.2 centimetres from tip to tip.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Lycaena dispar
- Named by
- Haworth, 1802
- Group
- Butterflies
- Family
- Lycaenidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Lycaenidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia
Where the facts come from
- Large copper (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Сергей Неклюдов. CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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