Lycaena hippothoe

Purple-edged Copper (Lycaena hippothoe)

2011 photos highlighted in green. Click on any photo to go to an enlarged picture, or simply scroll down the page.


21498_male_Alpes-Maritimes_5Jul10 - eurydame	7624_male_Alpes-Maritimes_26Jun07 - eurydame	05_23-32_male_Ariège_23Jul05 - hippothoe

26317_female_Alpes-Maritimes_05Jul11 - eurydame	26795_female_Alpes-Maritimes_09Jul11 - eurydame	05_22-13_female_Ariège_23Jul05 - hippothoe

17227_male_Alpes-Maritimes_04Jul09 - eurydame	7376_male_Alpes-Maritimes_24Jun07 - eurydame	21747_male_Alpes-Maritimes_7Jul10 - eurydame

21736_female_Alpes-Maritimes_7Jul10 - intermediate form?	26758_pair_Alpes-Maritimes_09Jul11 - eurydame	26765_pair_Alpes-Maritimes_09Jul11 - eurydame

There are two forms in France, the nominate form hippothoe, which is found in the Pyrénées at a range of 400-1800m and in lowland areas in the east of France, the male showing the purple colouration that gives it its name (just about visible on 05_23-32), and eurydame, the Alpine form, which has an altitude range of 1200-2500m. The two forms do not overlap geographically, although Lafranchis says that intermediate forms occur where the ranges of the two subspecies meet. Eurydame lacks the purple flush of the male hippothoe and often occurs with the Scarce Copper (Lycaena virgaureae) where the male eurydame and virgaureae look quite similar and need a close look to identify them.

The female uppersides of hippothoe and eurydame are very different, as indicated by 05_22-13 and 26317/26795. The female hippothoe has the classic copper pattern, and eurydame is almost completely brown with only a discoidal spot and a smaller cell spot visible.

ref	sex	observations	alt. m
21498	M	a freshly emerged male, with the beautiful fiery red-orange intact. The thorax body hairs appear to have purple tinge to me, but maybe I am just looking for any hint of purple.	1875
7624	M	*a typical male eurydame, a very fiery red colouring, with a clean strong black border extending along the veins, but only a vestigial upf black discoidal spot.*	1875
05_23-32	M	*an old photo of a male hippothoe* nominate form, showing the slight purple flush at the base of the uph.**
26317	F	a female eurydame, reasonably fresh as indicted by the white fringes, so the dull colouration is not due to wear. This appearance is not untypical of female eurydame. As such, it bears a strong resemblance the the Alpine subspecies subalpinus of the Sooty Copper (Lycaena tityrus)*; the key differentiator is that eurydame* has only two black upf marks while subalpinus has a clear post-discal series.**	2100
26975	F	a female eurydame, with a mild orange flush on the upf and a series of orange lunules on the uph margins, together with a few blue scales in the submarginal regions. The spider's web is just a parallax effect.	1700
05_22-23	F	*a female of the nominate form hippothoe, showing the classic female copper pattern.*
17227	M	*a male eurydame* underside, quite typical in my experience, with the slight unf orange flush.**	1875
7376	M	the slightly square hindwing at the anal angle suggest male. Also the "territorial" pose suggest male, but this may not be indicative. I would consider this to be normally marked and the slight orange unf flush to be normal.	2100
21747	M	a male, a very appealingly clean underside with only the faintest of orange flushes on the forewing.	1900
21736	F	a female, which I know for certain as I saw the upperside. Also the slight rounding of the hindwing at the anal angle (c.f. 21747) is further evidence. The heavy black spots suggest hippothoe but the colouring suggests eurydame. I suspect this may be an intermediate form (a hybrid) occurring at the border of the ranges of these two subspecies. Breathtakingly beautiful in its simplicity.	1900
26758	PR	a mating pair, the female on the right. See also 26765.	1700
26765	F	the same mating pair as 26758, the sun had come out and the female opened up to get the warmth of the sun's rays. I have noted that whenever this happens, it is always the female that opens up, never the male.	1700