Wingspan: 26–30 mm
Flight period of butterflies: in two generations from April to June and from July to September
Larval food plants: species from the genus Rumex (Rumex), especially the common sorrel (Rumex acetosa)
The female of the dark copper (Lycaena tityrus) is, as is typical for butterflies, larger than the male, since she carries fertilized eggs which she lays on the larval food plants. Additionally, she is also more vividly colored. The upper side of her forewings, speckled with black spots, is almost entirely orange, only at the corner near the body and at the outer edge of the wings is dark brown. Her hindwings are on the upper side dark brown and likewise decorated with black spots; along the lower half of the outer edge she has five orange bands, each of them with a dark brown dot in the middle. Her forewings are orange on the underside with the distinctive pattern of white-edged black spots; along the outer edge she has a series of oval orange spots, which on the sides are flanked by a black crescent-shaped mark. The row of these orange spots is much more pronounced on the underside of the hindwings, which are gray and speckled with black spots with a white border. The male is on the upperside almost completely dark brown, which shimmers iridescently in the sun; the upperside of his wings is also speckled with black spots, along the outer edge the orange spots are more or less blurred. The forewings and hindwings of the male underside are gray. They are adorned with white-edged spots, their edge just like in the female, orange spots, which are flanked by two black ones.
The Dark Copper is widely distributed in Slovenia, though along the coast and in the Dinarides, where it is forested with coniferous trees, it is somewhat rarer. In our region it is most common in the lowlands, but it occurs up to the tree line. It lives in various habitats, and we can find it on moist or dry meadows, as well as along forest edges and in shrubby areas. Males are territorial and defend their territory from tall grasses or shrubs.
