A FAVOURITE sight in summertime is the butterfly lurching, in the words of Robert Graves, “here and here by guess and God and hope and hopelessness”. But some species have been struggling in recent years as habitats and farming methods have changed.
One such is the Small Blue, which once thrived on farmland and, later, after the widespread use of herbicide destroyed its food source, adapted to man-made, “brownfield” sites such as quarries and disused railway cuttings.
However, as these became overgrown with scrub, or were reclaimed for other uses, the Small Blue once more found itself pushed out.
There are colonies on sand dunes and other coastal grasslands in Tayside and north-east Scotland. But even these are clinging on for dear life, and so conservationists have issued a clarion call for action: the search is on to find new homes for Cupido minimus.
For the next week, Butterfly Conservation Scotland, in conjunction with Tayside Biodiversity Action Group, is dispatching volunteers to discover potential breeding sites for the Small Blue.
The fact that the beastie – Scotland’s smallest butterfly – is a fussy eater doesn’t make things easy. The seeds and developing anthers of kidney vetch, a plant with round clusters of small, yellow flowers, are all that the larvae will dine on (apart from each other at times, but let us not dwell on that).
The Small Blue is considered vital for Scotland’s biodiversity. It may not seem much. It may not set the heather alight. But all such creatures play a part in the great scheme of things which is why, from the Borders to Caithness, volunteers will be doing their bit to help the Small Blue survive and maybe one day thrive again.
Nothing in nature can be taken for granted, particularly where humankind’s footprint is found. But it is fair to say that we have woken up to our responsibilities and, among these, is the Small Blue.
Be it ever so small and ever so humble, summer wouldn’t be the same without it.
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