Lucia limbaria (Chequered Copper)

Other Common Names

Grassland Copper, Small Copper

Notes

This cute little species was very high on my Want List, but was 3 years after starting this project before I finally saw it.  I finally had some luck at the
Mount Annan Botanic Garden, a place I’d looked for it several times before. According to the books this species is very sporadic, with colonies suddenly reappearing after being absent for quite some time. On this particular visit, the site was much wetter than any time I’d visited before as a result of some recent heavy rain, and the presence of these butterflies may have been linked to that. Certainly I saw much more of their foodplant (Oxalis) than I’d ever seen before. 

The butterflies were only to be found in small numbers – I saw them in half a dozen different places around the Gardens, but probably didn’t see more than 10 individual specimens. They were all found on grassy banks, mostly near the top. They were very unobtrusive when flying and the copper colour was not at all obvious, so they were surprisingly difficult to distinguish in flight from some of the other little Lycaenids in the area.  At the time I couldn’t help wondering if I’d simply overlooked them before, however I have been back to Mount Annan umpteen time since then and have never seen any more Chequered Coppers.

These butterflies appear to be much more common away from the coast. They’re easy to find around the ACT, with the largest number I’ve seen being near the top of Mount Ainslie.

Sightings

Mount Annan Botanic Garden – March 2007
White Rock, QLD – November 2008
Mount Ainslie, ACT – February 2010, April 2010, November 2012
Michelago – October 2018
Tuggeranong, ACT – October 2018

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