''Lycaena epixanthe'', the bog copper or cranberry-bog copper, is a North American

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

in 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 butterf ...

. Adults like to sip drops of dew clinging to leaves and almost exclusively nectar on their host plant,

cranberries Cranberries are a group of evergreen dwarf shrubs or trailing vines in the subgenus ''Oxycoccus'' of the genus ''Vaccinium''. In Britain, cranberry may refer to the native species ''Vaccinium oxycoccos'', while in North America, cranberry ...

. Because of this, bog coppers will spend their entire lives within the area of a single acid bog.Rick Cech and Guy Tudor (2005). ''Butterflies of the East Coast''. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ. Even though their flight is weak and close to the ground, bog coppers are hard to catch because of the habitat in which they live.Jim P. Brock and Kenn Kaufman (2003). ''Butterflies of North America''. Houghton Mifflin, New York, NY. Also, 85% of the bog coppers life span is spent in the egg. It is listed as a species of special concern in the US state of

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its capita ...

Description

The bog copper is the smallest North American copper. The upper side of the males wings is dark gray-brown with a purplish sheen (it glows under

UV light Ultraviolet (UV) is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelength from 10 nm (with a corresponding frequency around 30 PHz) to 400 nm (750 THz), shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-rays. UV radiation i ...

very strongly). The male has very few black basal spots on the fore wing. The hind wing outer margin has orange markings. The upper side of the females wings is very similar to the males except the female has a lighter purplish iridescence. The underside of the wings in both sexes varies from whitish-gray to yellowish-tan. The wingspan measures .

Similar species

Similar species in the bog copper's range include the purplish copper (''

Lycaena helloides ''Lycaena helloides'', the purplish copper, is a butterfly of the family Lycaenidae. It is found in North America from the Great Lakes area to British Columbia, south to Baja California. The wingspan is 30–38 mm. The upper surface of th ...

'') and the dorcas copper ('' Lycaena dorcas''). Another butterfly that is similar to the ''Lycaena epixanthe'' is the ''

Lycaena hetereonea ''Lycaena'' is a genus of butterflies. The genus range is Holarctic, with the exception of four species found in New Zealand, two in South Africa, one in New Guinea and one in Java. It is commonly divided into several subgenera, such as '' Antipo ...

'', except the blue color is on the upper side and the brown color is on the underside of the wing. The purplish copper is larger, the female has a lot of orange on the upper side, and both sexes have a conspicuous orange submarginal line on the upper side of the hind wing. The dorcas is larger, the male has more black spots on the upper side, the female has more orange on the upper side, and the underside of the wings is pinkish-brown or tan with a red-orange hind wing submarginal line.

Habitat

The only habitat in which bog coppers occur are acid bogs with cranberries. Thus conservation of acid bog habitats is essential for this butterfly.

Flight

This species is on the wing mostly from late June to early August (mid-June to mid-July near Ottawa, mid-June to early July in

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

, and mid-June to mid-August in

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and ...

).James A. Scott (1986). ''The Butterflies of North America''. Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA.

Life cycle

Males perch on low foliage (usually cranberry) all day from 10:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M. to await females. If a male sees a female passing by, he will pursue her. When she lands, the male will land behind her, vibrate his wings, and then they will mate. If the female has already mated or does not want to mate, she will vibrate her wings and then the male will leave. Females lay their

egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the a ...

s singly on the underside of host plant leaves a few inches above the bog surface. The whitish egg can withstand flooding. The

larva A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle. ...

is bluish-green with a darker green middorsal stripe. The bog copper larva is the only copper that feeds on cranberries.Thomas J. Allen, Jim P. Brock and Jeffrey Glassberg (2005). ''Caterpillars in the Field and Garden''. Oxford University Press, New York, NY. The chrysalis is pale yellow-green to green with brown and white markings. Rarely, the chrysalis can be solid dark purple. The egg

overwinters Overwintering is the process by which some organisms pass through or wait out the winter season, or pass through that period of the year when "winter" conditions (cold or sub-zero temperatures, ice, snow, limited food supplies) make normal activ ...

, usually under water with the larva fully developed inside. It has 1

brood Brood may refer to: Nature * Brood, a collective term for offspring * Brooding, the incubation of bird eggs by their parents * Bee brood, the young of a beehive * Individual broods of North American Periodical Cicadas: ** Brood X, the largest b ...

per year.

Food plants

The larvae feed upon shrubby cranberries in the heath family (

Ericaceae The Ericaceae are a family of flowering plants, commonly known as the heath or heather family, found most commonly in acidic and infertile growing conditions. The family is large, with c.4250 known species spread across 124 genera, making it th ...

). Here is a list of host plants used by the bog copper: * Large cranberry, ''

Vaccinium macrocarpon ''Vaccinium macrocarpon'' (also called large cranberry, American cranberry and bearberry) is a North American species of cranberry of the subgenus '' Oxycoccus'' and genus ''Vaccinium''. The name cranberry, comes from shape of the flower stam ...

'' * Small cranberry, ''

Vaccinium oxycoccos ''Vaccinium oxycoccos'' is a species of flowering plant in the heath family. It is known as small cranberry, marshberry, bog cranberry, swamp cranberry, or, particularly in Britain, just cranberry. It is widespread throughout the cool temperate ...

'' The adults feed on water and nectar from cranberry flowers.

References

External links

Bog copper
Butterflies of Canada {{Taxonbar, from=Q3007060 Butterflies of North America Lycaena Butterflies described in 1835