Butterflies have long been believed to represent transformation and change, thanks to the stunning metamorphosis they must go ...

brambles and other wild plants as a jumble of growth that can make the difference to a caterpillar surviving the winter or ...

The Smith's blue butterfly may be tiny, but it's endangered in a big way. It spends its whole life within a few hundred yards of two native plants, seacliff buckwheat and coast buckwheat — and is ...

Caithness volunteers can give themselves a pat on the back for helping a rare butterfly come back from the brink to find a ...

Luke explains, 'We had blue morphos breeding in the butterfly house one year. We were very excited about all of the tiny tufted caterpillars that appeared, but sadly we only ended up with one very ...

The large blue butterfly is one of Europe's most endangered ... The large blue was declared extinct in the UK in 1979. Four years later caterpillars were brought from Sweden in an attempt to ...

Caterpillars mature through four larval stages called instars ... POPULATION TREND: The Smith's blue butterfly's population trend is unknown.

The butterfly's survival relies on a game of deception with the ants, which are tricked into adopting the large blue's unassuming but predatory caterpillars. Large blues became extinct in the UK ...