THE SMALL COPPER 
259 * 
waist, the abdomen is ample, rounded and abruptly curved. 
Except for the wings, it is sprinkled with extremely minute 
processes that resemble the stalk and calyx of a flower. 
They have an expanded serrated apex, and are white and 
glassy. The surface is also granular. The colour is light 
ochreous-brown, finely speckled with dark amber-brown and 
spotted with black in longitudinal rows. A brown dorsal 
streak runs the entire length, and there is a black spot on 
each abdominal segment on the streak. 
The pupa is attached by a 
cincture round the waist and by 
the anal hooks to a pad of silk 
spun on the stem or leaf of the 
food plant. The pupal stage 
lasts between twenty-five and 
thirty days. 
Imago. The average expanse 
of the wings in the male is 
32 mm. ; in the female, 35 mm. 
The sexual difference is slight. 
Male. (Upper Side.) The 
fore wing is rather narrower, 
the outer margin straighter, 
and the costal margin darker 
than in the female, also the 
copper marginal band of the 
hind wing is narrower. Other¬ 
wise the sexes are similar. 
Both Sexes. (Upper Side.) 
The ground colour of the fore wing is a brilliant lustrous 
coppery-orange, or flame colour. There is a broad outer 
marginal black border, two square black spots in the cell 
and a series of six black spots across the wing. The hind 
wing is bronze-black ; the base is suffused with copper; 
there is a sub-marginal flame-red band spotted along each 
edge with black ; the margin is deeply scalloped between the 
anal angle and vein two. At the end of the cell is a black 
linear mark and two or three black spots beyond. 
(Under Side.) The fore wing is pale orange, spotted with 
black as on the upper side, but has, in addition, a black spot 
life. 
