Family:Lycaenidae
Family
Description:
Alternate Common Name: Cinquefoil Copper.
Note: Some authors refer to this species with the genus name Epidemia.
The distinction between this species and the Purplish Copper, Lycaena
helloides, is not clear in some locations, such as in the Rocky Mountains,
where the two have been known to hybridize.
Range:
This species ranges from Alaska east across Canada, south to Washington and
through the Rocky Mountains to northern New Mexico; in the Great Lakes states
south to Ohio; and in Maine. It occurs in patches throughout Idaho.
Habitat:
It occurs in meadows, bogs, marshes, and forest openings.
Diet:
Caterpillar:
Caterpillars feed on the leaves of cinquefoils (Potentilla spp.).
Adult:
Butterflies drink flower nectar, often from plants belonging to the sunflower
family (Asteraceae).
Ecology:
There is one generation of caterpillars each summer. Eggs
overwinter in leaf litter, and the young caterpillars emerging in the spring
must locate the host plant to begin
feeding. Adults generally fly
from mid-June through September.
Reproduction:
Males perch to
wait for receptive females or may actively patrol
for them. Females lay white eggs singly on the undersides of leaves of host
plants. As the leaves of the host plant are shed in autumn, so, too, do the
eggs fall to the ground; the eggs overwinter in the leaf litter.
Conservation:
Idaho Status: | Unprotected nongame species. |
Global Rank: | G5; population levels are secure, but may be of concern in the future. |
Opler, P. A., H. Pavulaan, and R. E. Stanford. 1995. Butterflies of North America. Jamestown, North Dakota, USA: Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center Home Page. http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/distr/lepid/bflyusa/bflyusa.htm (Version 05Nov98).
Opler, P. A. and A. B.Wright. 1999. A Field Guide to the Western Butterflies. Second Edition. Peterson Field Guide Series. Houghton Mifflin Company, New York, New York, USA, 540 pp.
Pyle, R. M. 1981. National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Butterflies. Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New York, New York, USA, 924 pp.
Scott, J. A. 1986. The Butterflies of North America. Stanford University Press, Stanford, California, USA, 583 pp.
Stanford, R. E. and P. A. Opler. 1993. Atlas of Western U.S.A. Butterflies (Including Adjacent Parts of Canada and Mexico). Published by authors, Denver, Colorado, USA, 275 pp.