Tim writes: this is a male Silver-studded Blue butterfly showing its silver studs in the black pupils around the hindwing margin. The second photograph shows the upperwings. It occurs primarily on lowland heathlands but a few colonies also occur on limestone. Its caterpillars feed on a variety of plants including gorse, heather and rock-rose, but they also have a relationship with black ants of the genus Lasius. Ants carry the young larvae into their nests where they tend and protect them, presumably for the sugary solutions they exude. But it is not known whether they actually feed on ant larvae (like Large Blues do), but at night the caterpillars emerge from the ants’ nests to feed on vegetation. Female Silver-studded Blues selectively lay eggs on vegetation close to Black Ant nests.
