Large Blue Butterfly

The life cycle of the Large Blue reveals a devious side to this pretty little creature.

The female lays her eggs on thyme plants. Here it is discovered by the Myrmica Sabuleti ant, which, persuaded by a heady mixture of pheromones and sugars, adopts the caterpillar and takes it back to the nest.When the egg hatches the caterpillar feeds on the thyme for two weeks before falling to the ground.

The caterpillar then sets up camp in a quiet corner of the ants' nest where it spends the next ten months enjoying 'all you can eat' from a buffet of ant eggs and larvae. Eventually surfacing as a butterfly in all its splendour, it lives for just two to five days.

My children and I were out for a short walk when we happened to walk across a ridge by Street, and saw people staring intently at a gorse bush.  We approached and found that they were looking at a rather scruffy butterfly.  This was the incredibly rare Large Blue, which the others there were ready to tell us about.

As an aside, how easy it is to engage in conversation with strangers when you are out walking in the countryside, even if it is just a cheery good morning.  It must be something about urban life that crushes the spirit and turns people into grumpy individuals who scuttle about the streets avoiding eye contact with anyone, like rats.