The male Sooty Copper is quite easy to identify, as it has smokey-grey uppersides with a subtle purple tinge.  The female is similar but with orange markings and tends to be more elusive in my experience. I found several males sunning themselves in a meadow in the Apuseni Mts in Romania but only managed to find one female who was egg-laying on sorrel plants. It is second only to the Small Copper as Europe’s most common copper and there is evidence to suggest that it is expanding northwards.

Distribution: Widespread in Europe. Absent from Britain and Ireland, most of Fennoscandia, most of Iberia and all but two Mediterranean islands (Samos and Sicilly). It is replaced by the Blue Sooty Copper (Lycaena bleusei) which is found in central Spain and northern Portugal.

Flight Period: Late April-October in the south, July-September in the north in 1-3 generations.

Habitat: Meadows, light scrub, woodland clearings, heaths to 2500m.

Foodplants: Common Sorrel (Rumex acetosa), occasionally other docks and sorrels (Rumex).

Nectar Sources: Buttercups (Ranunculus), thymes (Thymus), Ragged Robin (Lychnis flos-cuculi), Ragwort (Jacobaea vulgaris), scabiouses (Knautia), Cow Parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris).

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