[Pollinator] Disappearing disturbed habitat for the small blue in Europe

[Matthew Shepherd (Xerces Society)]

Hi Kim,

Kidney vetch is native to Scotland and the rest of the British Isles. There are various subspecies that are restricted to one region or another, but ssp. vulneraria is the most widespread. In general, kidney vetch is found on calcareous grassland, sea cliffs, and dunes, but also, as the article notes, seems to be surviving in disturbed areas created directly by humans too. Even in the apparently more stable habitats, such as the grasslands, disturbance is still likely the key to it's survival. Grasslands in Britain are almost all the result of human activity. Many of the calcareous grasslands in which kidney vetch grows, for example, are grazed (sheep or cattle), the animals' hooves breaking the sward and creating niches for seeds.

The last job I had in England was managing a nature park created on the spoil dug from the Channel Tunnel. Much of my work was overseeing the habitat creation. As a coastal site with calcareous soil close not too far from a small blue colony (also managed by the same countryside project I worked for), it seemed a good place to plant kidney vetch. We did, but the small blue never turned up while I still worked there.  :(

For more information on the small blue, I suggest reading the species accounts on the following two web sites:
Butterfly Conservation, http://www.butterfly-conservation.org/species/bdata/small_blue.html
UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme, http://bms.ceh.ac.uk/species36/description.htm

Happy holidays, everyone!

Matthew

 *********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 12/12/2005 at 9:29 AM Kimberly Winter wrote:

>Even species adapted to human-disturbed habitats could use our help in 
>conserving the plant habitats upon which they depend:
>
>http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article332129.ece
>
>A question for NAPPC plant ecologists:  Is the kidney vetch plant native
>to 
>those regions?
>
>~Kim
>
>Kimberly Winter, Ph.D.
>Coordinator, North American Pollinator Protection Campaign
>E-mail: NAPPCoordinator at hotmail.com
>Internet: www.nappc.org
>Ph: (301) 219-7030
>
>Mailing Address:
>0105"B" Cole Student Activities Bldg
>University of Maryland
>College Park, MD 20742-1026
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>Pollinator mailing list
>Pollinator at lists.sonic.net
>http://lists.sonic.net/mailman/listinfo/pollinator


______________________________________________________
The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation
Protecting wildlife through science-based advocacy, education, 
and conservation projects since 1971. To join the Society, make a 
contribution, or read about our work, please visit www.xerces.org.

Matthew Shepherd
Director, Pollinator Conservation Program
4828 SE Hawthorne Boulevard, Portland, OR 97215, USA
Tel: 503-232 6639 Fax: 503-233 6794
Email: mdshepherd at xerces.org 
______________________________________________________