Alabama Butterfly Atlas

The Bronze Copper is a "fugitive" species: it disappears quickly as plant succession progresses past its earliest stages.  Its habitats are almost completely dependent on some form of disturbance for creation and maintenance.  Although many butterfly species are dependent on transient habitats, Bronze Coppers require early succession wetland sites, a particularly difficult niche to find.

Bronze Coppers actively nectar on small flowers that are usually not far from their host plants. Males perch on short vegetation to watch for unmated females. Eggs are placed on the undersides of host plant leaves, along stems, and sometimes on seedheads. Caterpillars have a distinctive eating-pattern, chewing narrow grooves into host plant leaves.  On tougher leaves, they only scrape the surface, creating a windowpane effect. Chrysalides are often formed on the host plant.

Alabama's only known Bronze Copper colonies is dependent on the fortunes of some low-lying cotton fields.  When the fields lie barren, dock plants pop up, and so do Bronze Coppers.  In years that cotton is cultivated, the dock is replaced, and the coppers seem to vanish.  The scenario is frustrating, but without the cycle of disturbance and renewal, plant succession would progress to stages unfavorable to this wide-ranging but very exacting butterfly species.