Project to ‘freeze’ decline of iconic butterfly

A groundbreaking project has been launched to help protect one of the UK’s most spectacular insects – the British Swallowtail butterfly. The British Swallowtail’s population has significantly declined over the last 20 years and researchers from Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) in England are working with Jimmy’s Farm & Wildlife Park and Nature’s SAFE, a UK biobank specialising in conservation, to investigate if cryopreservation can support the long-term conservation of the species. It is believed this is the first time that cryopreservation, where the eggs will be stored in liquid nitrogen at -196 Celsius, has been attempted with butterflies.