{"id":28148,"date":"2023-06-01T15:29:22","date_gmt":"2023-06-01T13:29:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/?post_type=purple_issue&p=28148"},"modified":"2023-06-01T18:27:48","modified_gmt":"2023-06-01T16:27:48","slug":"large-blue-is-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/2023\/06\/01\/large-blue-is-back\/","title":{"rendered":"Large blue is back"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The return of this star butterfly species is a welcome success story <\/p>\n\n

\"\"
Large blue on betony: England has the biggest known populations of this butterfly species. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

THE STATE OF BUTTERFLIES IN THE UK IS a story in two parts. On the one hand, surveys by Butterfly Conservation show that a whopping 80 per cent of butterfly species have become scarcer or decreased in range since the 1970s. But on the other, a handful of species have bucked the trend, including some helped by a warming climate and others by intensely targeted conservation work. <\/p>\n\n

Among them is the large blue, star of BBC series Wild <\/em>Isles <\/em>(Grasslands <\/em>episode), which was declared extinct in Britain in 1979 but has prospered at a few carefully managed sites in south-west England since its reintroduction four years later. <\/p>\n\n

It is on the wing in mid-June and has a strange lifecycle involving ants. The caterpillar releases a pheromone that certain red ants can\u2019t resist, enticing them to take it underground into their nest, where the parasite feasts on ant grubs and completes its development.<\/p>\n\n

BH <\/strong><\/p>\n\n

\n\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n

Wild Isles<\/em> large blue butterflies feature in episode three<\/p>\n\n

\n\n

<\/p>\n\n

BUTTERFLY: DAVID CHAPMAN<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THE STATE OF BUTTERFLIES IN THE UK IS a story in two parts. On the one hand, surveys by Butterfly Conservation show that a whopping 80 per cent of butterfly species have become scarcer or decreased in range since the 1970s. But on the other, a handful of species have bucked the trend, including some helped by a warming climate and others by intensely targeted conservation work. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":28582,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ub_ctt_via":"","purple_page_number":"28","purple_custom_meta_purple_page_number":"28","purple_seq_number":"1","purple_custom_meta_purple_seq_number":"1","purple_source_article":"article_28-1.xml","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_article":"article_28-1.xml","purple_source_issue":"June-2023","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_issue":"June-2023","purple_external_id":"June-2023-28-1","purple_custom_meta_purple_external_id":"June-2023-28-1","purple_issue_code":"|0000087245||","purple_custom_meta_purple_issue_code":"|0000087245||","purple_android_product":"com.im.wildlife.505","purple_custom_meta_purple_android_product":"com.im.wildlife.505","purple_ios_product":"com.im.wildlife.505","purple_custom_meta_purple_ios_product":"com.im.wildlife.505","purple_web_product":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_web_product":"","purple_publication_id":"58d61955-0ac4-406c-83f1-ab6f21d86b70","purple_migrated":"","kt_blocks_editor_width":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"2023-05-30T10:21:30Z","apple_news_article-theme":"","apple_news_api_id":"4ea82849-d2e1-4153-b9cc-632286115d92","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2023-06-01T13:53:05Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADQ==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/ATqgoSdLhQVO5zGMihhFdkg","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":true,"apple_news_is_preview":true,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_article_theme":"","apple_news_sections":"[]"},"categories":[25],"tags":[14],"apple_news_notices":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/06\/large-blue-butterfly-female-on-betony-David-Chapman_preview-scaled.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2","apple_news_title":""},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/06\/large-blue-butterfly-female-on-betony-David-Chapman_preview-scaled.jpg",2560,1706,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/06\/large-blue-butterfly-female-on-betony-David-Chapman_preview-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/06\/large-blue-butterfly-female-on-betony-David-Chapman_preview-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/06\/large-blue-butterfly-female-on-betony-David-Chapman_preview-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/06\/large-blue-butterfly-female-on-betony-David-Chapman_preview-1024x682.jpg",800,533,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/06\/large-blue-butterfly-female-on-betony-David-Chapman_preview-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/06\/large-blue-butterfly-female-on-betony-David-Chapman_preview-2048x1365.jpg",2048,1365,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"THE STATE OF BUTTERFLIES IN THE UK IS a story in two parts. On the one hand, surveys by Butterfly Conservation show that a whopping 80 per cent of butterfly species have become scarcer or decreased in range since the 1970s. But on the other, a handful of species have bucked the trend, including some…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28148"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28148"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28148\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29015,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28148\/revisions\/29015"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}