While waiting for winter to relinquish its hold I went back over the four western U.S. butterfly outings I’ve done doing bird chases and/or vacations. Very memorable was the day on Hurricane Ridge (elevation 5,242 ft) in Olympic National Park in August of 2013. A recap of that day is here: Olympic NP
I was going through the collection of photos of that day and came across a poor angle shot of a copper that I brushed off as a female Purplish Copper as I had seen several during the visit. Upon closer examination it appears to be a Lilac-bordered Copper. They are very similar in appearance and there is variation in different regions of the country. The Purplish ventral hind wing (VHW) has a uniform ground coloration and small spotting while the Lilac bordered has a distinctive two toned VHW ground color with very little or no spotting.
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