| Actual Image
Scarce copper (10)
romuszka
![Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 180 W: 3 N: 158]](http://i1.treknature.com/misc/g-n-g.gif) (1613) | Scarce copper /Lycaena virgaureae/
(LINNAEUS, 1758)
The scarce copper (Lycaena virgaureae) is a butterfly of the copper or gossamer-winged butterfly family.
Females of that species look quite different being much less bright in colour and showing dark spots on the upper side of their wings.
Only the males of this species show bright golden red iridescent structural colours on the upper side of their wings, obviously a strongly developed signal for intraspecies communication between the sexes.
Lycaena virgaureae lives preferably on flower-rich, dry and damp meadows in Central Europe. In Spain it is found in the Pyrenees and in the Cantabrian Mountains. In southern France it is found in the Massif Central. Its area of distribution reaches the Arctic Circle in Fennoscandia in the north; in the south it reaches north and northwest Greece.
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Lycaenidae
Subfamily: Lycaeninae
Genus: Lycaena
Species: L. virgaureae |
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