www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Interesting item in the current BBC Wildlife magazine about Jeremy Thomas work with Large Blues. It would seem that there might be more than fives species in Europe as he and his team have discovered that M.Rebeli parasitise two distantly related ant species and whilst the butterflies may look superficially the same this could well indicate they are two seperate species. Apparrently M.Arion also uses a different ant in Poland to those found in Britain indicating that it might too be a seperate species. Cryptic Large Blues perhaps? Mark

Indeed. Sometimes I feel we have so much to learn, especially when species have typically been identified based on morphology of the adult butterfly. Makes you wonder how many species have been lost that we never knew existed!

Cheers,

- Pete

Pete Eeles wrote:how many species have been lost that we never knew existed!

One could argue that, since taxonomy is entirely a man-made construct, it is logically impossible for there to be species that we never knew existed!!!

Mike

Tuts wrote:...Apparrently M.Arion also uses a different ant in Poland to those found in Britain indicating that it might too be a seperate species. Cryptic Large Blues perhaps? Mark

Not necessarily - Chalkhill Blues in Poland use a different foodplant (Crown vetch) which the Chalkhills in western Europe will not use - the explanation seems to be that the eastern and western populations of the butterfly adapted to different foodplants when separated during the last ice age.