Contents > Butterflies > Resident > Coppers > Common Copper > Variations
Common Copper pictures of variations
Lycaena salustius
All the Copper Butterflies are under debate as to their classification. Presently nzButterfly.info is using George Gibbs classifications. But there is
merit in the Brian and Hamish Patrick’s reclassification in 2012. nzbutterfly.info will be adopting the Patrick’s classification in the present website
overhaul. This will increase the number of Copper species from 4 to 7.
The Common Copper is split into the
Coastal Copper and
Maui’s Copper. The
Glade Copper has the ‘enysii’ variation becoming the
North Island Glade Copper.
The Boulder Copper is also split in two with the
introduction of the Canterbury Alpine Boulder Copper.
Finally the Rauparaha’s Copper is unchanged.
Notes: All links are to the relevant iNaturalist NZ observation page. These pages have the scientific names which are omitted here.
Lowland North Island Variation
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Lowland North Island Male © Mike Lusk |
Lowland North Island Female  Tony Wills
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This variation has the largest wingspan at about 30mm, has fairly consistent colouration, but with less black spots and narrower lines along the veins. It does have the greatest sexual dimorphism where the females have substantially darker bands on the wings then the males, this lead to the idea of a sub-species (L S Maui) mentioned at the bottom of this page.
Mountain Variation
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Mountain Variation Male |
Mountain Variation Female © Taffy Parry |
With a wingspan about 27mm, the males copper is slightly duller and
has broader black markings
which merge at the wing bases. On the female the blue patches are more predominant.
Note: This is published in other publications as the Cook Strait coast and
Southern Alps
Variation. I have seen several Common Coppers that match this description in Whirinaki Forest Park
and
have being provided pictures from upland Hawkes Bay of similar looking specimens.
Lowland South Island Variation
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Lowland South Island Male © R Arter-Williamson |
Lowland South Island Female © Jérôme Albre |
This has the smallest wingspan of 26-28mm, they have a wider black band around the wing tips.
Sub-species