Large Blue Butterfly

(Maculinea arion)

Classification- Conservation Status - Conservation Issues - Conservation Organizations - Literature Cited

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Introduction:

000Maculinea arion, or the Large Blue Butterfly, currently inhabits most of Europe excluding the extreme north and south (ARKive, 2006). It lives in 37 countries over all, counting its reintroduction to the United Kingdom. This includes Spain, Iran, Japan, Switzerland, and Russia to name a few (Gimenez Dixon, 1996). M. arion’s habit consists of short grasses on Sothern slopes and the presence of wild thyme and ant species in the genus Myrmirca (ARKive, 2006). Caterpillars hatch, live and feed on wild thyme for the first few weeks of their lives. After this, however, they drop to the ground and rely on the ants to continue their life cycle (Lee, Date unknown). The ants are attracted to the caterpillars by a gland producing a sweet liquid. The caterpillar then mimics the ant grub and is carried back to the ant nest. The adopted and parasitic M. arion then feeds on the ant grubs until it pupates and emerges as an adult butterfly in June (Singer, 2003). As risky as it is for M. arion to depend on the ants for survival, they are benefited with protection and a reliable food source if successful at luring an ant (Rowlings, 2006). The large blue butterfly is indeed a large, blue butterfly, adults reaching wingspans of 18- 38 mm. Their eggs are round and white, larva are white with black heads and can grow to about 15 mm long. The Large Blue pupa are brown and rounded. (Natural History Museum, 2005). The upperside of the wings are bright blue withblack spots on the top half of the wings. There is a patterned black border around the outside of the wings. The underside of the winds are grey with black spots (Padding, 2001). Adults life for 3-5 days (Barnett et al., 1995)

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A Large Blue caterpillar being found by an ant 000 A Large Blue caterpillar on the ground
(Cornwall Wildlife Trust) 000000000000000000000 (Cornwall Wildlife Trust)

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The life cycle of Maculinea alcon a close relative of Maculinea arion, also refered to as the Large Blue Butterfly (Nash, 2000)

Conservation Status:

000IUCN Red List: Lower Risk / Near Threatened (LR/nt)
000CITES List: unavailable
000United States Migratory Bird Treaty Act: n/a
000United States Endangered Species Act: n/a0

Conservation Issues:

000The main problem facing the wellbeing of M. arion is habitat destruction. The ants they rely on to nurture caterpillars into adults only occur in short grasses. This was facilitated by grazing livestock, rabbits and regular burning. When farming began to change the landscape of former habitats, Myrmirca populations decreased. With out incubation in ant nests Large Blue Butterflies can not survive to adulthood, so their populations decreased as well (ARKive, 2006).

000Populations of the large blue butterfly are fragile in the United Kingdom. In 1950 numbers began to decline drastically. Conservation efforts ensued, but due to limited knowledge of the close butterfly- ant relationship conservation in the U.K. failed and the Large Blue Butterfly became extinct in the U.K in 1979. In June 2000 scientist from the National Trust created a suitable habitat and relised 10 female and 2 male Large Blue Butterflies in the U.K. (Lee, Date unknown). There are currently five successful sites with stable populations of M. arion in south west England (Bourn, 2006).

 

Literature Cited:

Barnett, L.K. and M.S. Warren. March 1995 Butterfly Conservation in association with the Joint Committee for the establishment of the Large Blue Butterfly. http://www.butterfly-conservation.org/species/action_plans/large_blue/lb_action_plan.pdf Accessed 2006 March 26

Bourn, Nigel. 2006. Action plan for Maculinea arion. UK Biodiversity Action Plan. http://www.ukbap.org.uk/UKPlans.aspx?ID=435 Accessed 2006 March 26

Gimenez Dixon, M. 1996. Maculinea arion. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. www.iucnredlist.org. Accessed 2006 March 26

Lee, Malcom. Date unknown. Large blue butterfly - reintroduction into North Cornwall. The Cornwall Wild Life Trust. http://www.cornwallwildlifetrust.org.uk/nature/inverteb/largeblue.htm Accessed 2006 March 17

Natural History Museum of London, 2005. Large Blue http://internt.nhm.ac.uk/cgi-bin/fff/glob.pl?report=Fauna&Fauna.[FaunaNo]=32.0 Accessed 2006 March 26

Mazzei, Paolo, Diego Reggianti and Ilarioa Pimpinelli. 2006. Maculinea arion. http://www.leps.it/indexjs.htm?SpeciesPages/MaculArion.htm Accessed 2006 March 16

Nash, David. 2000. University of Copenhagen and Aarhus of Denmark. Large Blue Butterflies. http://www.zi.ku.dk/personal/drnash/Atta/Pages/LargeBl.html Accessed 2006 March 17

Padding, J. T. 2001 http://www.vlinderstichting.nl/butterflyinfo/species/marion.html Accessed 2006 March 16

Rowlings, Matt. 2006 Maculinea arion. http://www.eurobutterflies.com/species_pages/arion.htm Accessed 2006 March 17

Singer, Alexander 2003 http://www.hdg.ufz.de/index.php?en=2007 Accessed 2006 March 27

 

 

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Introduction - Classification - Conservation Status - Conservation Issues - Conservation Organizations - Literature Cited