Book excerpt: The book contains extended abstracts on a wide variety of issues concerning the ecology and conservation of Large Blue butterflies of the genus Maculinea. It mainly consists of results of the EU funded research project MacMan (Maculinea butterflies of the Habitats Directive and European Red List as indicators and tools for habitat conservation and management; www.macman-project.de). They have been presented at a Conference held in Leipzig, 5-9th of December, 2005. Sections covered are: Maculinea as indicators; Functional and trophic relations in Maculinea systems; Population genetics, chemistry and physiology of Maculinea and Myrmica ants; Conservation and management for Maculinea. Keynote speakers at the Maculinea part of the conference are: Jeremy Thomas (UK), David Nash & Jacobus Boomsma (Denmark), Konrad Fiedler (Austria), Piotr Nowicki (Poland) and Thomas Hovestadt (Germany).