Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada
Clickable Guide
Interactive image map to choose major taxa Moths Butterflies Flies Caterpillars Flies Dragonflies Flies Mantids Cockroaches Bees and Wasps Walkingsticks Earwigs Ants Termites Hoppers and Kin Hoppers and Kin Beetles True Bugs Fleas Grasshoppers and Kin Ticks Spiders Scorpions Centipedes Millipedes

Sponsor
The Coleopterists Society supports BugGuide.

Calendar
Upcoming Events

National Moth Week was July 19-27, and the Summer 2025 gathering in Louisiana, July 19-27

Photos of insects and people from the 2024 BugGuide gathering in Idaho July 24-27

Moth submissions from National Moth Week 2024

Photos of insects and people from the 2022 BugGuide gathering in New Mexico, July 20-24

Photos of insects and people from the Spring 2021 gathering in Louisiana, April 28-May 2

Photos of insects and people from the 2019 gathering in Louisiana, July 25-27


Subspecies Lycaena dorcas castro

Representative Images

Lycaena helloides? - Lycaena dorcas Butterfly ID Needed - Lycaena dorcas - male Butterfly ID Needed - Lycaena dorcas - male Lycaena florus (ssp. sangremar) - Lycaena dorcas - male Lycaena florus (ssp. sangremar) - Lycaena dorcas - female   - Lycaena dorcas Copper butterfly - Lycaena dorcas Copper butterfly - Lycaena dorcas
Show images of: caterpillars · adults · both

Classification

Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Lepidoptera (Butterflies and Moths)
Superfamily Papilionoidea (Butterflies and Skippers)
Family Lycaenidae (Blues, Coppers, Hairstreaks, Harvesters)
Subfamily Lycaeninae (Coppers)
Genus Lycaena
Species dorcas (Dorcas Copper - Hodges#4261)
Subspecies castro (Lycaena dorcas castro)

Food

Reported larval hosts include Cinquefoils in genera Potentilla & Dasiphora of the Rosaceae; genera Rumex & Polygonum in Polygonaceae; and Vaccinium of Ericaceae, the last being highly unusual for the genus. Adults are avid flower feeders with a strong attraction to flowers of Cinquefoils, and also to "Daisy" type flowers (Aster, Heterotheca, Erigeron, etc.) in the Asteraceae.