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Ecology

Chalk-hill blues

Nature volume 428, page 27 (2004)Cite this article

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From the southern Mediterranean to the northern half of Europe, the distinctive colour of the chalk-hill blue butterfly Polyommatus coridon is unmissable — in contrast to the species itself, which has a rather patchy distribution. In the context of general concern over the effect that changes in climate and land use might have on biodiversity, T. Schmitt and G. M. Hewitt used this species, and another — Erebia medusa, the woodland ringlet — to test ideas about a species' history, its present-day patterns of genetic diversity and its robustness.

As they report in Molecular Ecology (13, 21–31; 2004), Schmitt and Hewitt have drawn on various datasets to conclude that the butterflies' location in Europe, determined by past climatic events, reflects their genetic diversity, and also, they speculate, their predisposition to population decline.

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Authors
  1. Katrin Bussell
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Bussell, K. Chalk-hill blues. Nature 428, 27 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/428027a

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