The Giant Copper is a butterfly

Butterfly

A butterfly is a mainly day-flying insect of the order Lepidoptera, which includes the butterflies and moths. Like other holometabolous insects, the butterfly's life cycle consists of four parts: egg, larva, pupa and adult. Most species are diurnal. Butterflies have large, often brightly coloured...

 of the Lycaenidae

Lycaenidae

The Lycaenidae are the second-largest family of butterflies, with about 6000 species worldwide, whose members are also called gossamer-winged butterflies...

 family. It is found in South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

.

The wingspan

Wingspan

The wingspan of an airplane or a bird, is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777 has a wingspan of about ; and a Wandering Albatross caught in 1965 had a wingspan of , the official record for a living bird.The term wingspan, more technically extent, is...

 is 30–39 mm for males and 34–45 mm females. Adults are on wing from October to early January or as early as August for the nominate subspecies. There is one generation per year .

The larvae of ssp. pallida and jonathani feed on Aspalathus

Aspalathus

Aspalathus is a genus of flowering plants in the legume family, Fabaceae. The yellow flowers and spiny habit of some species have suggested a resemblance to Ulex europaeus, the thorny "English gorse" Accordingly "Cape Gorse" has been proposed as a common name although the resemblance is largely...

species. The larvae of ssp. grandis are fed by trophallaxis

Trophallaxis

Trophallaxis is the transfer of food or other fluids among members of a community through mouth-to-mouth or anus-to-mouth feeding. It is most highly developed in social insects such as ants, termites, wasps and bees. The word was introduced by the entomologist William Morton Wheeler in 1918...

 by Lepisota capensis ants. They also feed on the eggs of these ants.

Subspecies

• Aloeides pallida pallida (West Cape to East Cape and north to the Orange Free State)
• Aloeides pallida grandis Tite & Dickson, 1968 (mountains above Paarl and Franschhoek north to Gydo Mountain and east to Garcia’s Pass)
• Aloeides pallida littoralis Tite & Dickson, 1968 (coastal fynbos from Hermanus to Knysna in the West Cape)
• Aloeides pallida jonathani Pringle, 1987 (montane fynbos in the Kammanassie Mountains in the West Cape)
• Aloeides pallida juno Pringle, 1994 (Fynbos in the East Cape)
• Aloeides pallida liversidgei Pringle, 1994 (Baviaanskloof Mountains in the East Cape)