Major new project launch to save rare Small blue butterfly

Small blue butterfly. Credit Jane Ellis/Butterfly Conservation

Britain's smallest butterfly, the Small Blue is in drastic decline due to the loss of its chalk and limestone grassland habitat. Warwickshire (and the West Midlands now only hang on to this beautiful butterfly at 3 sites around Southam, all of which are active or former quarries.

Butterfly Conservation is launched its Bringing Back the Small Blue project at Southam Quarry on Thursday 18th June.

The project aims to restore habitat for the Small Blue butterfly at 15 local sites in an area containing some of the richest habitat in the West Midlands for butterflies and other insects. The project aims to restore flower-rich grassland, where the Small Blue caterpillar will be able to thrive on Kidney Vetch plants.

Dingy Skipper and Grizzled Skippers
Project work started in March with 3.5 hectares of scrub being cleared on 4 sites. At Southam Quarry the flora has already started to recover and good numbers of rare Dingy Skipper and Grizzled Skippers have been found using the newly cleared areas. Plants already reappearing include violets and Common Spotted Orchids. Two thousand Kidney Vetch plants have also been planted to provide egg laying sites for any prospective Small Blue.

Martin Warren, Chief Executive of Butterfly Conservation the national charity for conserving butterflies and moths said "I am really excited about this project. There a signs that we could start to see increases in Small Blue numbers and other rare butterflies and moths in a relatively short space of time, which is fantastic news. These creatures need all the help they can get as sites are being lost to development, unsuitable restoration or simply neglect. The project is already attracting help from local volunteers and helping to develop their conservation skills, which is great for the future of the local environment. This project is just one of 76 landscape scale partnership projects that Butterfly Conservation is involved in across the UK."

Other rare insects toget boost
As well as the Small Blue, the three year programme of restoration works will also help many other rare insects including butterflies such as the Dingy and Grizzled Skippers well as the Chalk Carpet moth, bumblebees and the dotted bee-fly.

The three year project has major funding from SITA Trust, the Stratford Community Fund, Network Rail and Cemex, with many smaller contributions from local companies and Parish Councils.