 |
|||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|||||||
 |
Silver Studded Blue Butterfly Date: 29th June 2006 Camera: Nikon D200 Silver-studded Blues are a butterfly with a fascinating and extremely specialised live style. In habitat terms, they favour heathland and have a marked preference for young heather growth, a factor that greatly limits their distribution in the UK. The also have a very unusual lifecycle because they depend on the presence of a species of black ant that looks after the butterfly during the early stages of its life. Suffolk has a small population of Silver-studded Blues, but one that is still important in national terms. They occur in widely scattered colonies on the remaining fragments of what was once an almost continuous area of heath that ran unbroken from Ipswich to Southwold, an area known as the Sandlings. The heaths that remain are just a fraction of this once great area and are all now in active conservation management. Because the Silver-studded Blue is a relatively sedentary species, and the areas of heathland that remain are often some distance apart, it is difficult for the butterflies to colonise new areas. To help overcome this problem, conservationists are actively helping the butterflies by relocating individuals from colonies with healthy populations to new areas that have been carefully managed to create the conditions that the butterfly needs - complete with ants! It is too early to know whether the project will be successful, but if it is, it will help to ensure the long-term prospects of this beautiful little insect. Find out more about the Silver-studded Blue translocation project in Suffolk |
||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|||||||
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|