Large Heath (Coenonympha tullia)
Key Details
| Taxonomic Groups: | Invertebrate > insect - butterfly > Butterfly |
| Red List Status: | Endangered (Not Relevant) [EN(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: | Coenonympha tullia |
| UKSI Recommended Authority: | (Müller, 1764) |
| 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): EN. Large Heath is a widespread but local species within its range in northern GB. It's status was uplisted in 2021 to Endangered (A2) due to 57% distribution decline over the last 10 years. Monitoring data is insufficient to produce separate country trends. This species is considered Vulnerable at the European scale. |
| Question 2: | Does recovery/ conservation depend on species-specific actions? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | A localised species, occurs in discrete colonies up to about 500-600m above sea-level in open boggy habitats where its main foodplant, Hare's-tail Cotton Grass (Eriophorum vaginatum), grows in abundance. This declining butterfly has suffered from the drainage and destruction of many of its bog habitats and climate change is an increasing threat and species-specific actions are urgently required. |
| 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: | General protection and maintenance of bog habitats, re-wetting etc. |
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 - insufficient |
| Species Comments: | Combination of both climate change and extinction debt with destruction of peatland habitat. Monitoring is incomplete and due to many sites being remote locations only a few are monitored and therefore not enough data for country trends. |
Key Actions
Key Action 1
Proposed Action: Increase the number of sites monitored across England to ensure trends on abundance can be reliably produced at England country level and carry out status assessment of sites to understand occupancy, habitat condition, risks/pressures.
Action targets: 4. Autecology and pressures understood
Action type: Targeted monitoring
Duration: 3-5 years
Scale of Implementation: National
High priority sites:
Comments:
Key Action 2
Proposed Action: Increase our knowledge on the most critical habitat quality parameters that are required for sustainability of Large Heath populations and research the impact of habitat fragmentation and isolation on the long-term sustainability of Large Heath populations at a landscape-scale.
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: Undertake research to assess the impact of climate change (such as changing rainfall patterns, temperature, evaporation) on habitat condition, particularly the shallow peat sites which appear to be under greatest threat and investigate measures to buffer/protect such sites where this change is detected.
Action targets: 5. Remedial action identified
Action type: Scientific research
Duration: >10 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.