An upcoming report in Science celebrates the 25-year effort to restore the large blue butterfly (Maculinea arion) in the UK, where it reached extinction in 1979. Meticulous research showed that the extinction was caused by a subtle change in habitat that disrupted the unusual life cycle of this spectacular butterfly. Previously, the extinction had been attributed to the work of overzealous collectors. Adult M. arion females lay their eggs on thyme flowers in the summer. After hatching, the caterpillars stay very small and many eventually fall to the ground. They secrete chemicals that attract red ants and fool them into thinking the caterpillars are ant grubs. The ants then carry the tiny caterpillars into their underground nests. In most cases, only caterpillars that have landed in the nest of one particular ant species, Myrmica sabuleti, will survive to adulthood. The caterpillars' secretions are a sufficiently close match to those of M. sabuleti grubs that the ants never discover that they have been duped, and instead continue to protect the caterpillars for 10 months even though they are feeding on the ants' own brood. In early June, the caterpillars form a chrysalis near the colony entrance and then emerge to crawl aboveground two weeks later as butterflies. Using laboriously collected field data, lead author Dr. Jeremy Thomas and his coauthors explored the possible factors that could be causing the butterflies’ decline. They realized that the grass in the butterflies' habitat had grown too long, as farmers had gradually stopped grazing their livestock on these hillsides and a viral infection had killed many of the wild rabbits in the 1950s. The soil on these overgrown grasslands was therefore too cool to support adequate numbers of M. sabuleti ants.Login Or Register To Read Full Story