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| UK Status |
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| Resident |
A species which is continually Resident in the UK with stable breeding populations. |
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| Migrant |
A species which occurs as a Migrant in the UK. It may be able to breed here although they are usually unable to survive our winter months. Migrants are normally reported in the UK every year. |
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| Rare Migrant |
A species which occurs as a Rare Migrant in the UK. It may able to breed here although they are usually unable to survive our winter months. Rare Migrants may not be seen for many years. |
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| Extinct |
A species which is Extinct in the UK, usually as a result of habitat loss. |
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| Introduction |
A species which ocurs in the UK as an accidental introduction. |
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Description
The Large Blue is as the names suggests is the largest of our Blue Butterflies and one of our rarest species. It is fully protected in Great Britain and as such must not be disturbed handled or interfered with in any way without a licence.
It is one of our most beautiful butterflies, despite its relatively small size compared to many of our butterflies. The deep blue upper wings and unmistakable arch of black spots and wing edges fringed with black on its upper forewing are unique among our butterflies.
The undersides of its wings are a silver-grey ground colour, becoming metallic silvery blue nearer to the body. Black spots cover the undersides which are fringed with white.
The British Race of the Large Blue became extinct back in 1979 due to habitat loss and poor management due to a lack of understanding of the butterflies needs. It has been re-introduced, albeit using a closely related species from the island of Öland, Sweden.
The first successful re-introduction occurred in 1983. During 1986, young larvae were imported to bolster the new population. Since then, the re-introduction programme has been a great success with many more sites now supporting this species.
The Large Blue is one of the most enigmatic of our British species. Its extinction was widely publicised in the early 1980's. The discovery of its remarkable life-cycle which involves spending the majority of its life-cycle as a larvae and pupae within the nests of red ants, where the larvae feed on the ant grubs was discovered between 1915-18 by Frohawk and Purefoy. However, it was not until the work of Jeremy Thomas in the late 1970's and the key discovery of the Large Blue's dependence on a particular species of Red Ant (Myrmica sabuleti) which itself requires specific environmental conditions in order to survive (i.e. warm, well drained grassland with very short sward and the presence of Wild Thyme) that the true reason for its extinct was known. It was the absence of the Red Ant from many of the former sites which ultimately lead to the Large Blues extinction in the UK.
The Large Blue is a Priority Species for conservation due to the continued conservation work required to re-establish viable, self-sustaining populations.
Habitat
The Large Blue requires warm dry unimproved acidic or limestone grassland where the larval food plant occurs. The sites must also contain healthy populations of a certain species of red ant namely Myrmica sabuleti.
The Large Blue is most active on warm sunny days but they do tend to rest and seek out warm pockets of grassland surrounded by vegetation during the middle part of the day. For the best views early morning or early evening is the best time to see the Large Blue, especially on days of broken cloud when individuals can be seen basking with their wings open wide to absorb heat from the sun.
Larval Food Plants
Wild Thyme (Thymus polytrichus) is the only food plant upon which the Large Blue will lay its eggs and the larvae feed. Eggs may be laid on Wild Marjoram (Origanum vulgare) but this rarely occurs in the UK as Marjoram tends to flower later here.
Upon reaching their fourth instar the Large Blue larvae drop from the food plant to be found by red ants which mistake the Large Blue larvae to be their own and they are taken back to the ants nest.
Once within the ants nest the Large Blue larvae will feed on the ant grubs. It is important to note that only with certain specific species of does this occur, namely (Myrmica sabuleti) and (Myrmica scabrinodis). However survival rates are much greater in larvae which feed within the nests of Myrmica sabuleti.
British Subspecies
The following sub-species of the Large Blue occur in the UK.
 Large Blue - Glaucopsyche arion arion (Linnaeus, 1758) - Occurs in the UK. This subspecies was reintroduced to the British Isles. The stock originated from Sweden.
Large Blue - Glaucopsyche arion eutyphron (Fruhstorfer, 1915) - Occurred in the UK. This was the endemic species which is now extinct.
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| Stock Photography Library |
| We have 5 photographs of the Large Blue in the British Butterflies photo library |
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BB308 - Large Blue
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BB307 - Large Blue
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BB260 - Large Blue
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BB105 - Large Blue
DSC_2472.JPG
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BB12 - Large Blue
DSC_2466.JPG
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| Distribution |
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| The Large Blue is declining throughout Europe at an alarming rate and became extinct in Britain in 1979. The re-establishment of the Large Blue in Britain has resulted in the species now being present on 11 main sites where it is estimated some 10,000 adult butterflies flew in 2006 which is more than at any time in the last 60 years. |
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| Where to see the Large Blue |
NOTE: The following list of sites has been sourced information already in the public domain.
Collard Hill is the only open public access site in the UK. All other sites are either accessible by prior arrangement or are closed to the public during the main flight season of the Large Blue. Other sites are private. Permission must be sought before visiting these non-public sites.
20 breeding sites in the Polden Hills in Somerset include Collard Hill, Site X (famous as being the last site which the Large Blue occupied before becoming extinct), Green Down, Black Down and Gilling Down. In Cornwall, the Large Blue has been re-introduced to a north coast valley near Dannonchapel while a single site in the Cotswolds, Daneway Banks near Sapperton is also reported as doing well. The Large Blue has also been re-introduced to two other sites in the Mendips (Devil's Punchbowl and Hindhead Common). |
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| Population Trends |
| species status |
the Large Blue is a resident species in Britain |
| population trend1 |
(1995-2004)  insuficient data |
(1976-2004) insuficient data |
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1Fox, R., Asher. J., Brereton. T., Roy, D & Warren, M.
(2006) The State of Butterflies in Britain & Ireland, Pices, Oxford. |
| UK Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) Status |
| UK BAP status2 |
priority species (link) |
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| 2 For more information about the UK Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) species status, visit www.ukbap.org.uk. |
| IUCN Category Status |
| IUCN category3 |
 critically endangered4 |
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3 Fox, R., Warren, M & Brereton, T.
(2007) New Red List of British Butterflies. Butterfly Conservation, Wareham.
4 More information about IUCN categories available here. |
| Find Out More Online* |
| More information about the Large Blue can be found on Peter Eeles excellent UK Butterflies web site. |
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Aberrations and Forms |
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| We currently know of 20 named aberrant forms of the Large Blue. More information about aberrants can be found here. |
 ab. alconides - Aurivillius (1888) |
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| ab. caeruleomarginata - Tutt (1914) |
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| ab. conjuncta - Tutt (1914) |
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| ab. glomerata - Tutt (1914) |
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| ab. grisea - Courvoisier (1913) |
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| ab. imperialis - le Chamberlin (1908) |
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| ab. insubrica - Vorbrodt (1912) |
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| ab. magnifica - Heydemann (1910) |
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| ab. marginata - le Chamberlin (1908) |
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| ab. oolitica - le Chamberlin (1908) |
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| ab. pallida - le Chamberlin (1908) |
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| ab. parvipuncta - Courvoisier (1907) |
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| ab. postero-immaculata - Tutt (1914) |
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| ab. punctifera - Grund (908) |
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| ab. retrojuncta - Courvoisier (1911) |
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| ab. striata - Tutt (1914) |
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| ab. subtus-maculis-extensis - Oberthür (1896) |
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| ab. supra-impunctata - Oberthür (1896) |
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| ab. suprapuncta - Obraztsov (1936) |
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| ab. teleius - Bergstrasser (1779) |
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The following aberrant forms of the Large Blue have been photographed in the wild in Britain:
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| References |
| The information on this web site comes from a variety of freely available resources including books, academic reports and web sites alongside my own personal observations of butterflies. The species descriptions are currently in the process of being edited (spring 2009) to include new data, recent personal observations and referencing following a major update to the site.
A complete list of references mentioned in the text on this web site is available here. |
| * External Links Disclaimer |
| This web site includes links to information provided by external web sites which are not in any way under the control of www.britishbutterflies.co.uk. We cannot, therefore, be held responsible for the content of external web pages. |
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38-52mm
