Submitted by Tricia Harnett on Tue, 28/10/2025 - 12:10
The small blue, Cupido minimus, is one of the many butterflies featured on our ‘Butterflies Through Time’ research project and it’s also one of the butterflies that will be monitored at new ‘butterfly banks’ constructed at Trumpington Meadows Nature Reserve, Cambridge (take a look at our Butterfly Bank Video). The butterfly banks are mounds of earth shaped like the letter ‘E’ - this allows for different microclimates to exist in the same area. This work has been done in partnership with the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire.
The Insect Ecology Group at the University’s Department of Zoology uses museum collections to understand long-term species trends and inform present day conservation management.
Due to their size, butterflies and other invertebrates can make use of even small patches of shade and shelter to take refuge from extreme weather events (Hayes et al. 2024, Extreme Heat Paper). Previous work by the Insect Ecology Group has shown the small blue butterfly species to be sensitive to temperature change (Ashe-Jepson 2022, Small Blue Paper) and historical records from the University Museum of Zoology, Cambridge, highlight how this species has always been scarce in the county (Butterflies Through Time/small blue). The new banks will continue to be monitored into the future and we hope they will support a wide community of species, whilst giving new opportunities for wide range of research projects.
For more information on the butterflies of Cambridgeshire, past and present, please take a look at the Museum of Zoology Butterflies Through Time web pages. We have collected modern and historical accounts on the butterflies of Cambridgeshire using specimens and notebooks stored at the Museum. The records have been mainly taken from the notebooks of 19th century naturalist Leonard Jenyns who lived in Cambridgeshire around 200 years ago.
We also have a display of butterflies in the Upper Gallery of the Museum. Museum entry FREE.
Extreme Heat Paper
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10841-024-00556-5
Trumpington Meadows Butterfly Banks Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRcItx3z5cI
Small blue Paper
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10841-021-00360-5
Butterflies Through Time - small blue
https://www.museum.zoo.cam.ac.uk/butterflies/butterflies-through-time/lycaenidae/small-blue
