Blue Copper butterfly male - Lycaena heteronea
Blue copper butterflies (Lycaena heteronea) can be seen flying from early May through August, with males searching for females, females searching for host plants, or both nectaring from a variety of flowers including buckwheat, green rabbitbrush, yarrow, asters, gaillardia, fiddleneck, wallflower, and milkweed among others.
Blue coppers differ from other coppers in that the upper wing surface of males is clear sky blue and heavily veined, not coppery. The female does look copperish with wings above grayish-brown with black spots. Unlike other coppers, these lack orange chevrons or zigzags along the wing margins above or below. The underside of blue copper wings is white-- completely white on the hindwing in Eastern Washington and with black dots on the forewing. Wingspan is 1-1/8 to 1-3/8 inch.
Blue copper caterpillars rely only on buckwheat plants as their host plant for food.
Blue Copper butterfly female - Lycaena heteronea
Chopaka Lake
Blue Copper Butterfly male
Umtanum Creek trail
Blue Copper butterfly female
nectaring on western wallflower mustard
