Paralucia pyrodiscus

Paralucia pyrodiscus (Doubleday, 1847)
Fiery Copper
(one synonym : Chrysophanus aenea Miskin, 1890)
LUCIINI, THECLINAE, LYCAENIDAE, PAPILIONOIDEA

Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley

Paralucia pyrodiscus
(Photo: courtesy of M. and P. Coupar, Museum Victoria)

These Caterpillars are an endangered species in some parts of Australia. They feed on the leaves of various plants from the Pittosporum family (PITTOSPORACEAE) :

Prickly Box ( Bursaria incana ),

Sweet Bursaria ( Bursaria spinosa ), and

Prickly Pittosporum ( Bentleya spinescens ).

They are attended by ants of the genus :

Notoncus ( FORMICINAE ).

The caterpillars feed nocturnally, resting by day in the ant nest at the foot of the foodplant.

male
(Photo: courtesy of CSIRO/BIO Photography Group, Centre for Biodiversity Genomics, University of Guelph)

The adult butterflies upper surfaces are brown with a yellow patch on each wing. The females have more rounded wings than the males.

female
(Photo: courtesy of CSIRO/BIO Photography Group, Centre for Biodiversity Genomics, University of Guelph)

Underneath they are paler with dark zigzag lines. The butterflies have wingspans up to about 3 cms.

underside
(Photo: courtesy of Martin Purvis, Sydney, New South Wales)

The eggs are off-white, and shaped like a dome with a flat roof. The surface is covered in about 1,000 minute pits. The eggs have a diameter of about 1 mm. They are laid in loose clusters of from one to a dozen, on or near the base of a foodplant bush.

egg, magnified
(Photo: courtesy of Ken Walker, Eltham, Victoria)

The species is common in

Queensland, and

New South Wales,
but elsewhere: only survives in a few pockets of

Victoria, and

South Australia.

Two races have been recognised :

lucida Crosby, 1951, (Eltham Copper) and

pyrodiscus,

although the variation seen in the butterflies may just be a climatic adaptation.