''Lycaena orus'', the western 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 ...

( Eastern Cape Province, Western Cape Province). The habitat consists of

fynbos Fynbos (; meaning fine plants) is a small belt of natural shrubland or heathland vegetation located in the Western Cape and Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa. This area is predominantly coastal and mountainous, with a Mediterranean clim ...

at various altitudes, from sea level to montane regions. 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. The butterfly flies year-round, peaking in summer. Larval food is ''

Polygonum undulatum ''Polygonum undulatum'' is a species of flowering plant in the family Polygonaceae, native to the Cape Provinces of South Africa. It was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 as ''Atraphaxis undulata'', and later transferred to ''Polygonum'' ...

'' and ''

Rumex lanceolatus 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 distri ...

''. They feed on the edge of the leaves of their host plant, occupying the portion eaten out, the dorsal line of the larva resembling the actual edge of the leaf. The general colour of the larvae matches the leaf or stalk where it is feeding, some are plain green, while others have a pink or salmon dorsal stripe.Afrotropical Butterflies: Lycaenidae - Subfamily Lycaeninae
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References

* orus Endemic butterflies of South Africa Butterflies described in 1780 Taxa named by Caspar Stoll {{Lycaeninae-stub