Small Copper

Petiver excelled himself in naming this one as the Small Golden Black-spotted Meadow Butterfly in 1699. Later (1717) he changed it to Small Tortoiseshell. That's confusing to us now but prior to 1742 the Small Tortoiseshell was known as the Lesser Tortoiseshell. The Small Copper acquired its current name in 1795 (despite later attempts to call it the Common Copper or the Common Small Copper). At this time of year its often the commonest butterfly on one of my butterfly transects. So it was this morning when I saw five of these beauties.