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Large Copper
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Cluj, Romania,
June 2006 |
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Cluj, Romania,
June 2006 |
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Cluj, Romania,
June 2006 |
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Cluj, Romania,
June 2006 |
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Rila Mts,
Bulgaria, July 2004 |
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| A beautiful species. The male
upperside is a staggering bright orange red. It is often seen flying
rapidly around a habitat at speed but closer to the breeding areas they
become happier to take their time, feed and bask. As with most
threatened wetland species it has declined seriously in recent years
becoming absent in many places due to habitat destruction. It became
extinct in the UK in the 1920s due to draining of its lowland habitat and
excessive collecting during that period. Successive and long term attempts
to reintroduce the species to the UK have failed for many and varied
reasons including lack of sufficiently extensive habitat, unsuitability of
the subspecies selected for reintroduction (the British subspecies
dispar survives nowhere) and acclimatisation to greenhouse environment
in which the annual supply of "booster" butterflies was kept. |
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