Northern Brown Argus (Aricia artaxerxes)
Key Details
| Taxonomic Groups: | Invertebrate > insect - butterfly > Butterfly |
| Red List Status: | Vulnerable (Not Relevant) [VU(nr)] |
| D5 Status: | Included in the baseline Red List Index for England (Wilkins, Wilson & Brown, 2022) |
| Section 41 Status: | (not listed) |
| Taxa Included Synonym: | (none) |
| UKSI Recommended Name: | Aricia artaxerxes |
| UKSI Recommended Authority: | (Fabricius, 1793) |
| UKSI Recommended Qualifier: | (none specified) |
| Red List Citation: | Fox & Dennis, 2021 |
| Notes on taxonomy/listing: | (none) |
Criteria
| Question 1: | Does species need conservation or recovery in England? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | GB Red List (Fox et al. 2022): VU. Northern Brown Argus occurs locally in northern England, subspecies salmacis. Statistically significant 58% decline in abundance since 1979 and an 18% short-term (10 year, 2010-2019) decline; 43% long-term decline and 20% short-term decline in distribution trends (Fox et al. 2023). Sub-species salmacis only occurs in northern England. Often occupying only small scattered sites across norther England, many sites isolated. |
| Question 2: | Does recovery/ conservation depend on species-specific actions? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | Sub-species salmacis found in northern England different to subspecies across Scotland. Often occupying only small scattered sites across norther England, many sites isolated and require targeted grazing to maintain hostplant but are also threatened due to inappropriate/lack of grazing and tree planting schemes. |
| Question 3: | At a landscape scale, would the species benefit from untargeted habitat management to increase habitat mosaics, structural diversity, or particular successional stages? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | Species of early successional grassland mosaic, requires some light grazing to create varied structure/uneven sward with plentiful larval foodplant Common Rock Rose. |
Species Assessment
| Current step on the Species Recovery Curve (SRC): | 4. Autecology and pressures understood |
| Recovery potential/expectation: | Low - Combination or other (detail in comments) |
| National Monitoring Resource: | Structured - sufficient |
| Species Comments: | Recovery potential is limited by a combination of climate change, hybridisation (as Brown Argus expands northwards), policy conflict due to loss of sites from tree planting/development or changes in grazing and extinction debt due to past habitat destruction. |
Key Actions
Key Action 1
Proposed Action: Provide targeted habitat management advice on appropriate grazing levels and scrub management to create uneven sward structure along with abundant foodplant.
Action targets: 7. Best approach adopted at appropriate scales
Action type: Advice & support
Duration: >10 years
Scale of Implementation: National
High priority sites:
Comments:
Key Action 2
Proposed Action: Autecological research on host plant microclimate choice in light of climate change; is the niche changing for this species and can we adapt our habitat management practices to buffer site suitability for this species requiring cooler conditions.
Action targets: 4. Autecology and pressures understood
Action type: Scientific research
Duration: 3-5 years
Scale of Implementation: ≤ 50 sites
High priority sites:
Comments:
Key Action 3
Proposed Action: Carry out research to understand the current extent, potential threat and impact of hybridisation as Brown Argus moves north into Northern Brown Argus range
Action targets: 4. Autecology and pressures understood
Action type: Scientific research
Duration: 3-5 years
Scale of Implementation: National
High priority sites:
Comments:
Acknowledgment:
Data used on this website are adapted from Threatened species recovery actions 2025 baseline (JP065): Technical report and spreadsheet user guide (Natural England, 2025). Available here.