THE future of one of Gloucestershire’s most charismatic and threatened butterflies could be secured thanks to a grant of more than £40,000 to help restore its habitat.

The Duke of Burgundy has experienced a 73 per cent loss of its colonies within the Cotswolds since the 1980s, but Butterfly Conservation (BC), in partnership with local organisations, hopes to reverse declines by restoring habitat for the butterfly.

Biffa Award has provided BC with more than £42,000 to pay for conservation work to help with its work.

BC’s conservation officer, Rachel Jones said: “We are delighted that Biffa Award has decided to support this vital work, because despite seeing some success in previous years, we need to continue our habitat restoration work in the area.

“At some sites, populations of this butterfly still remain very small and are vulnerable to extinction.”

The Duke of Burgundy’s combative temperament makes it one of the UK’s most charismatic butterflies and it is on the wing between May and June.

Although the butterfly measures less than three centimetres across, it is fiercely territorial, attacking any flying insect that crosses its path.

Their upper wings are orange and brown, overlaid with a network of dark bars and stripes, while its underwing is a mix of burnt-orange and pale ochre with distinctive flashes of white.

The females are elusive and spend much of their time resting or flying low to the ground looking for suitable egg-laying sites. Eggs are laid on the caterpillar foodplants, either cowslip or primrose.

The Biffa Award grant will help fund conservation tasks aimed at boosting numbers of the butterfly.

Biffa Award has funded BC to carry out this type of habitat management before and it led to an increase in the Duke’s population at five Cotswolds sites in 2014.

Work this year will be carried out across 13 sites to help expand populations of both the Duke of Burgundy butterfly and the globally endangered Large Blue, which was previously re-introduced to sites in 2012.

For more information email Rachel Jones at rjones@butterfly-conservation.org.