The Bathurst Copper Butterfly is restricted to elevations above 900 metres where it feeds on a form of Blackthorn, Bursaria spinosa subsp. lasiophylla. The Bathurst Copper Butterfly has a mutualistic relationship with a species of small black ant, Anonychomyrma itinerans, which protects the caterpillar from predation and host the pupae within their nest.
The Bathurst Copper Butterfly is known from a total of twenty-nine sites comprising less than thirty hectares of habitat. It is thought that native vegetation clearing has reduced the area of potential habitat to small isolated remnants. The small size of these remnants compounds the harm that the various threats to the species may have on the remaining sites.
Current threats to the Bathurst Copper Butterfly include habitat loss or modification through clearing, spraying, grazing, fire, weed invasion and illegal collection. The butterfly has not been observed at six of the twenty-nine sites in recent years and may be in decline at others.