Huge recovery for butterfly once extinct in the UK

Image source, Jeremy Thomas

The butterfly has had its best summer in 150 years.

Thousands of the large blue butterfly have been recorded this summer in south-west England.

The Royal Entomological Society led the project that resulted in this.

The success story demonstrates how species can be saved.

There were many rare species that benefited from the work done in the area.

In the UK, the blue was declared extinct in 1979. In an attempt to reestablish the species in England, caterpillar were brought from Sweden.

David Simcox was one of the two people who reintroduced the butterfly in 1983.

I didn't have a gray hair when I started. He said it was all grey.

Image source, Royal Entemological Society

Mr Simcox and his colleague, Jeremy Thomas, did not expect this type of success back in the 1980s.

The national population was under 10,000 eggs in the first 10 years.

The summer of this year saw the count of large blue butterfly eggs.

The south-west of England is believed to have the largest colony of butterflies in Europe.

Conservators focused on restoring a type of wild meadowland where the blue likes to live.

Prof Thomas said it was one of the strangest butterflies he had ever seen.

It spends most of the year as a caterpillar in a red ant nest where it eats grubs. It's more difficult to protect.

If we can understand the ecological requirements of very rare and difficult species, we can reverse the trend of decline.

While the large blue butterflies are doing well, their long-term future is not certain.

Image source, Butterfly Conservation; Keith Warmington

Poor land management can really hurt the species.

Climate change and extreme weather endanger large blues because they rely on flowering plants and ants.

The rare insects that benefited from the project were the rugged oil beetle, rock-rose pot beetle, shrill carder bumblebee, downland villa and spotted beeflies.

The National Trust, J & F Clark Trust, Natural England, and Oxford University own or manage the sites.