Red-tipped Flower Longhorn vs Large Copper Butterfly

Side-by-side species comparison

Attribute Red-tipped Flower Longhorn Large Copper Butterfly
Scientific Name Stictoleptura rubra Lycaena dispar
Order Coleoptera Lepidoptera
Family Cerambycidae Lycaenidae
Size 10-19 mm 33-40 mm wingspan
Habitat Forests Wetlands
Diet Nectar Feeders Nectar Feeders
Regions Europe, Caucasus, Siberia Europe, Asia
Conservation Least Concern Near Threatened

Red-tipped Flower Longhorn

A sexually dimorphic flower longhorn where males have tawny-yellow elytra and females are bright red. Common across European conifer forests, it breeds in old pine stumps. Adults are regular visitors to hogweed and other umbellifers.

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Did You Know?

The dramatic color difference between sexes led early entomologists to describe them as two separate species.

Large Copper Butterfly

Once widespread across European wetlands, the English subspecies went extinct in the 1850s. Remaining populations are declining due to drainage of fens and marshes.

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Did You Know?

The English subspecies of the large copper was one of the first British butterflies to go extinct — driven to extinction by drainage of the East Anglian fens in the 1850s.