Ábrahám Levente – Farkas Sándor: Butterflies along the river Drava, 2008

A peculiar group of blues (Lycaenidae) listed in Natura 2000 are the myrmecophylous maculinea blues (Maculineasp.), со existing with ants.The scarce large blue (Maculinea teleius) [11] and dusky large blue (Maculinea nausithous) [12] are definitely associated with drying bogs and marshy meadows with great burnet in them. Both species lay their eggs into the inflorescence of great burnet plants, and then the third larval stage caterpillars drop to the ground from the flowers, where they attract ants with their sweet body fluids and thus stimulate the ants to carry them home to the formicary. Inside the ant colony the caterpillars feed on ant pupae, and reach their pupa stage there. They will fly out in mid summer and in late-summer. These species are definitely sensitive to area management, for their metapopulations can considerably depend on the timing and the way of hay collecting in meadows with great burnet. The most favourable regime for these butterflies includes one grass cutting in late May and another cleaning one late in the autumn. When cutting the grass in the meadows, the use of heavy machinery should be avoided so that ant-hills are not destroyed.