''Lycaena clarki'', the eastern sorrel copper, is a

butterfly Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the Order (biology), order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The ...

of the family

Lycaenidae Lycaenidae is the second-largest family of butterflies (behind Nymphalidae, brush-footed butterflies), with over 6,000 species worldwide, whose members are also called gossamer-winged butterflies. They constitute about 30% of the known butterfl ...

. It is found only in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. The

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingspan of ...

is 21–27 mm in males and 22–30 mm in females. The butterfly flies year-round, peaking in summer. Larval food is ''

Rumex The docks and sorrels, genus ''Rumex'', are a genus of about 200 species of annual, biennial, and perennial herbs in the buckwheat family, Polygonaceae. Members of this genus are very common perennial herbs with a native almost worldwide distribu ...

lanceolatus''. The larvae vary considerably in colour, ranging from plain green to pinkish red. However, there is always a white subspiracular stripe and a dorsal line of a darker colour. Both eggs and pupa may hibernate.Afrotropical Butterflies: Lycaenidae - Subfamily Lycaeninae
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References

Lycaena Butterflies described in 1971 Butterflies of Africa {{Lycaeninae-stub