Successful Conservation of a Threatened Maculinea Butterfly

Abstract

Bringing Back the Large Blue Flagship endangered species, such as the Large Blue butterfly have driven conservation programs worldwide. However, the Large Blue butterfly ( Maculinea arion ) became extinct in the United Kingdom. The apparent driver of this extinction was a complex set of events documented by Thomas et al. (p. 80 , published online 18 June; see the Perspective by Settele and Kühn ). Life-tables and modeling demonstrate how ecological changes, affecting multiple species, cascaded to negatively impact Large Blue populations. When the changes that cause these extinctions were addressed, reintroduction efforts proved successful. Other insects have experienced similar declines and, hopefully, on sites where their known resources remain abundant, a similar approach may be applied.