Small Blue butterfly in a meadow of the Botanical Garden, June 2026. Credit: Lotta S Saetre, Uppsala University
The Botanical Garden in Uppsala was recently visited by animal ecology researchers, who conducted a BioBlitz to find, identify and record as many insects as possible in the Botanical Garden. One of the finds was an endangered butterfly called the Small Blue, Cupido minimus. It is abundant in one of the garden's meadows.
The Small Blue, Cupido minimus, is a small brown butterfly with a wingspan of 18–25 mm. The underside of its forewing features a band of small black dots surrounded by a white ring.
It is the smallest of around 20 species of blue butterflies in Sweden and inhabits sunny, preferably calcium-rich, hay meadows. As the number of hay meadows in Sweden has fallen by 80% since the 1930s, this little brown butterfly is now found primarily on shingle beaches, in abandoned gravel pits and on warm roadside embankments where Kidney Vetch plants thrive.
The Small Blue is very loyal to its local habitat and is often found in large numbers in small areas. As these areas are declining sharply, the Small Blue is classified as a vulnerable species on the Swedish Red List.
