Large Blue, Collard Hill
Introduction
The photograph on this page of Large Blue, Collard Hill by Alan Hunt as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk
Large Blue, Collard Hill
Image: © Alan Hunt Taken: 22 Jun 2010
A female Large Blue (Maculinea arion) egg laying on Thyme. This is one of Britain's rarest butterflies. The original species became extinct in 1976 on Dartmoor, since when it has been successfully re-introduced to a number of sites from Swedish stock, under the auspices of Butterfly Conservation and the National Trust. Collard Hill is the only open access site for this butterfly. The caterpillar will be tended by ants of the Myrmica spp who will carry the caterpillar to their nest to pupate. The caterpillar "sings" to the ants to fool them into believing that it is an ant grub, as well as exuding a sweet sap which is very attractive to the ants.
Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
Image Location
Latitude
51.10336
Longitude
-2.732933
