Tiny jewel

So lucky to have seen the smallest of our Coppers again this year.

 

This northern species is an obligate dweller of acidic bogs and wet sedge meadows with wild cranberries.

 

The entire life cycle of the Bog Copper depends on wild cranberries (in this location Small Cranberry/Vaccinium oxycoccos). The tiny white blooms provide nectar for the adults, females lay their eggs on the undersides of the tiny leaves and the larvae feed on the shoots and leaves.

 

As with other small butterflies, there is only one brood per year and the lifespan of the adults is rather short. They spend most of their life in other forms with eggs surviving ice and periodic inundation submerged in freezing water and the larvae feeding on the cranberry leaves the following spring. The adults emerge in early July and may fly for two to three weeks.

 

Freshly emerged males have beautiful purplish sheen on top of their wings. This individual is perched on a blackberry bloom. (see my other shots in this series)

 

Bog Copper -male- (Tharsalea epixanthe) Sullivan County, Pennsylvania

Done