The large blue butterfly (Phengaris arion), the largest and rarest of the UK’s blue butterflies, has a remarkable lifecycle. It relies entirely on a single species of red ant (Myrmica sabuleti) to survive. In the third episode of the BBC TV series Wild Isles, Grasslands, David Attenborough narrates a chilling chain of events. “This caterpillar is one of the very few in the […]
Tag: grasslands
“The longer it stays latched onto your skin, the more toxin it pumps in until your legs start to give way and your face and breathing muscles begin to freeze…”
If you’re strolling through grasslands in Australia, South Africa and the US Rocky Mountains in spring and early summer it’s important to check that you haven’t picked up an unwelcome and dangerous hitchhiker. The paralysis tick is a blood-sucking insect, the adult female of which has a nasty added extra – a powerful neurotoxin in […]
High fertiliser use halves numbers of pollinators, world’s longest study finds
Using high levels of common fertilisers on grassland halves pollinator numbers and drastically reduces the number of flowers, research from the world’s longest-running ecological experiment has found. Increasing the amount of nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus doused on agricultural grassland reduced flower numbers fivefold and halved the number of pollinating insects, according to the paper by […]
Fence me in: the bold plan to save native species on Wilsons Promontory
Deep in the wilderness, surrounded by ferns and the calls of cockatoos, Richard Marchant was so focused he didn’t realise three leeches were latched to his face. The ecologist had spent the day on his knees, searching for tiny invertebrates carried by a stream winding through Wilsons Promontory, a 50,000 hectare national park in Victoria, […]