Purple-shot Copper (lycaena alciphron)
2008 photos highlighted green. Click on any photo to go to an enlarged picture, or simply scroll down the page.
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| 1241_male_Alpes Maritimes_28May06 - gordius | 1236_mating pair_Alpes Maritimes_28May06 - gordius | 1274_male_Alpes Maritimes_28May06 - gordius |
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| 1255_female_Alpes Maritimes_28May06 - gordius | 05_07-30_female_Var_23May05 - gordius | 2161_female_Isere_30Jun06 - gordius |
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| 05_07-13_female_Var_24May05 - gordius |
This is a fabulously marked and rather large copper. It can appear like a small bright fritillary in flight, and is always a pleasure to see. There are two subspecies in France, alciphron (the nominate form) and gordius (the southern subspecies). The alciphron male has a violet suffusion all over the upperside, giving the species its name. The female alciphron is basically dark brown with the usual copper upf black markings in the cell and post-discal areas with distinctive uph orange marginal lunules. Females have a more curved shape of the hindwing base (as compared to the slightly square shape of the male - this seems true for most coppers).
T&L says that gordius is the form that occurs in the mountains and gives an altitude range of 800-2000m. I personally doubt this. Whilst it is without doubt the form that occurs in the mountains, it also seems to be the predominant (or exclusive) form across southern France, occurring at quite low altitudes. I have only seen alciphron in the area around Bordeaux, but gordius in every other southern location. The female gordius is very large and bright and sometimes has blue centres to the uph submarginal black spots, just visible in the enlarged version of 1255 (below). The male gordius has less distinctive black marks, which are quite suffused especially on the upf. The female underside has a very attractive orange unf and grey unh with an orange border. The male seems to have less orange on the unf.
1241: gordius - a male, with the black spots indistinct, and some quite suffused on the unf. Altitude 330m, same location as 1236.
1236: gordius - the male is the one in shot. The unh ground colour is a pale grey brown, with the orange submarginal band quite weak decreasing upward and quite feint above s4, a weak unf orange flush on the lower part. Altitude 330m.
1274: gordius - a male with typically slightly greyer unh ground colour.
1255: gordius - a female, generally quite lightly marked and with the uph black submarginal spots having blue centres. Altitude 330m, same location as 1236.
05_7-30: gordius - a female, with more typical heavier black markings.
2161: gordius - I think the extensive unf orange suggest a female, as does the curvature of the hindwing, although this is not entirely clear from the camera angle. It seems quite lightly marked on the unf and generally quite a strong orange feel to the whole underside. Altitude 1200m.
05_7-13: gordius - a rather more typical female, the unh ground colour being quite a clear but pale grey.
1241_male_Alpes Maritimes_28May06 - gordius
1236_mating pair_Alpes Maritimes_28May06 - gordius
1274_male_Alpes Maritimes_28May06 - gordius
1255_female_Alpes Maritimes_28May06 - gordius
2161_female_Isere_30Jun06 - gordius
