Species Lycaena rubida - Ruddy Copper - Hodges#4257

4257

The ending of a species name usually matches the gender of the genus name - sometimes it doesn't happen, and sometimes is debated by experts for some time.

Perhaps the brightest orange species of Copper. Males are almost solid orange above, with a metallic sheen that may look purplish or red at certain angles. The females have a more "average" brownish pattern above with varying amounts of orange (depending somewhat on where they are found). The underside is nearly white, with the dark spots on the hind wing small and often reduced to the point of being nearly invisible. The orange submarginal line on the under hind wing is usually faint and thin, or more often totally absent. On the under front wing, there is only one row of dark marginal spots (double in several other species of Lycaena), and usually there are only the three of these closest to the lower margin (or the others are much fainter). The lowermost of the postmedian row of dark spots (second row in from the outer margin) is ofset toward the outer margin from the spots above it (only true in a few other species that look quite different).

The closest relative is the Blue Copper - Lycaena heteronea, in which the pattern below is the same, but males are blue instead of orange above, and the more similar females are grayish rather than brownish and have at least some hint of blue coloring above on the body and wings. In black and white photos the two species are pretty much identical, but in color there is rarely a problem except with some old and faded females.