Common Copper

This little butterfly is a rare visitor to my garden. I remember seeing only one before. It is a common copper, a New Zealand native, of the lowland South Island variation of Lycaena salustius. There are several regional variations and there is a possibility of them being reclassified into separate species. The bluish marks on the outer black stripe show that it is a female.

My hopes of getting a nice open-wing shot were dashed by the butterfly’s rapid flitting close to the ground, and its habit of immediately closing its wings for the seconds it remained on a flower. Here it is on a clover flower.

We had a hot summer’s day. The sunshine was too fierce for me to stay in it.