Marsh fritillaries are one of the UK's most threatened butterflies, dependent on specific habitat conditions that have declined dramatically, with individual welfare linked to colony viability.
Marsh fritillary welfare is inseparable from the availability of their specialist habitat. Individual caterpillars that cannot find devil's bit scabious cannot complete their life cycle. Colony isolation means that even butterflies in suitable habitat face local extinction through inbreeding. Conservation management that maintains large, connected grassland patches with appropriate grazing directly benefits individual welfare through successful reproduction.