Dirty Insect Image No. 2

It spends most of its life as an egg attached to the underside of a cranberry leaf in a single spruce bog. But during its week-or-so fling as a tiny adult, the Bog Copper (Lycaena epixanthe), about the size of your pinky’s fingernail, floats among the leatherleaf and glowing magenta orchids. It has the unusual distinction of eating cranberry leaves as a caterpillar and nectaring on cranberry flowers as an adult. Rarely do butterflies eat and nectar from the same plant. Bog Coppers aren’t as choosy about mating sites, however. This pair was making more Bog Coppers on a leatherleaf in northern Ontario on July 8, 2012. Here in Vermont, with frosts on the way, I’m already wistful for butterflies.