Male small heath butterflies find mates either by defending their ownership of a territory or by drifting in search for a female. Virgin females also spend time in the air to find a potential mate, but females who have already mated avoid claimed territories. Due to its longer lifespan, virgin females seek mates less urgently than, for example, females of the C. tullia species. Virgin small heaths females will allow males to pass by instead of seeking them out to begin courtship. They choose to perform a long, elaborate zig-zag flight pattern to draw attention after they reach a group of perching males, who will take part in lekking as a show of dominance. The female then selectively chooses her mate and begins a monandrous relationship. Most matings occur with residents within territories than with the wandering non-residents. Females often mate with males with larger wings, as territory owners are usually larger, and generally mate only once or twice in their short overall lifetimes. Lekking Male small heaths aggregate and form leks often around bushes or trees, creating an elaborate visual display to attract a female's attention. The female will approach by circling the lek, which attracts the males' attention more than being stationary. There are both costs and benefits of lekking for the female. Females benefit by typically mating with the dominant male and producing offspring with beneficial, heritable genes, as a result of their free choice in mates. They also have increased survival and maintained health because males cannot force the females to copulate. A few fitness costs include lost time to obtain more resources, risk of mortality through predation, and less time for oviposition, which all lead to decreased fecundity. The leks themselves do not contain resources for the females. Copulation Copulation between male and female small heath butterflies lasts between 10 minutes and 5 hours, occurring at any time in the day. In 1985, a study observed that males often mate within their own territory (86.7% of 30 matings), and these copulations are generally lengthy, lasting over 100 minutes. Otherwise, copulations lasted approximately 10–30 minutes, especially for vagrant males. The study also found that either the male or female (but generally the male) is forced to leave the territory after copulation. Nuptial gifts During copulation, male small heath butterflies transfer a nuptial gift to a female in the form of a spermatophore, which contains both additional