The purple-shot copper (Lycaena alciphron) is a butterfly in the family of the Lycaenidae or copper butterflies and in the genus of the Lycaena. The coloring of the males and the females is very different, i.e. the sexual dimorphism is very strong. The top sides of the wings are red-gold with black spots. The males fluoresce purple, while the females' top side is brown, also with black spots. The rear wings have submarginal spots. The caterpillar is nocturnal and eats sorrel. The fully-grown butterfly feeds from wild thyme, ground-elder, and blackberry flowers. The purple-shot copper can be found in Europe, Morocco, and Turkey at heights between 500 and 900 meters. This butterfly migrates from June to July. Subspecies There are several subspecies including: Lycaena alciphron melibaeus (Staudinger, 1878) Lycaena alciphron gordius (Sulzer, 1776) Lycaena alciphron heracleana (Blachier, 1908) Lycaena alciphron granadensis (Ribbe, 1905) Description from Seitz C. alciphron Rott. (= lampetie Schiff., virgaureae Hufn., hiere F., helle Bkh., hipponoe Esp.) (77 a), Lighter yellow and less golden [than hippothoe]; the upperside of the male in the name-typical form quite unlike that of any other Chrysophanus, being so dusted with dark scales which have a bluish gloss that the ground-colour is almost suppressed. This dark scaling of the male is only interrupted by the black discal spots and a reddish yellow distal band of the hindwing. The underside is rather uniform in colour, on the disc of the forewing somewhat brighter reddish yellow, with numerous, rather large, round ocelli strongly edged with whitish. In Central Europe and the southern districts of North Europe, from the shores of the North Sea and the Baltic provinces to the chain of the Alps, and from North France to the Altai and Mongolia. — In the South the species is represented by the much larger gordius Sulz. (77 a), of which both sexes are bright yellow-red above, with very prominent and heavy black spots above and yellow instead of blue-grey underside to the hindwing. — There exist nearly all intergradations between gordius and the typical form, for instance meliboeus Stgr. (77 a), in whose males, which are larger than alciphron, but smaller than most gordius, the yellowish red ground-colour breaks through the dark scaling, though it is less pure than in true gordius: in Greece, Asia Minor and North Persia; Greek specimens differ a little from those from Anterior Asia, but the differences are not