David Element
Wildlife Photography and Digital Video Images
__________________________________________________________________Butterflies
23 - Silver-studded Blues
SILVER-STUDDED BLUE BUTTERFLY Plebejus argus (f)
SILVER-STUDDED BLUE BUTTERFLY Plebejus argus (f)
SILVER-STUDDED
BLUE BUTTERFLY Plebejus argus (f)
- The
charming little Silver-studded
Blue Butterfly Plebejus argus is a dry
heathland specialist and therefore very vulnerable to human pressures as
this habitat is often considered to be nothing more than wasteland and
ripe for commercial development. In fact heathland is one of the most
threatened habitat types in Europe and many other fascinating and rare
species will be likely to disappear unless adequate protective legislation
and site management are provided. Silver-studded Blues have a strong
symbiotic relationship with black Lasius spp. ants, a
process which affords mutual benefit as the ants receive a sugary
secretion from the butterfly larvae in return for physical protection
despite possibly losing some of their own larvae in consequence of
predation by their 'guests' (this is not proven behaviour, and the relationship
may be far more innocuous). The ants will guard the butterfly pupae which
form in their nests and the photographer has seen them in attendance of a
freshly emerged imago. This ant-association is termed 'myrmecophily' in
acknowledgement of the well recorded relationship between red Myrmica
spp. ants and the rare Large
Blue Butterfly, a species recently declared extinct in the
UK, but re-establishing fairly well at a few carefully selected sites
following the re-introduction of a closely matched European subspecies. As
the larvae of this butterfly are
known to consume ant larvae perhaps the process ought to be termed
'myrmecophagy'! An account of this behaviour has been given by the late Dr
John Pontin in 'Ants
of Surrey'. The above photographs have been scanned
from old transparencies at low resolution and they need to be replaced!
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