Grizzled skipper & other early UK butterfly sightings

[Nick Greatorex-Davies]

Dear all

Today (April 16th) a colleague of mine (Henry Arnold) saw a Grizzled
Skipper (Pyrgus malvae) during the lunch-hour at the edge of Monks
Wood National Nature Reserve (Cambridgeshire). Realising this was very
early for this species I phoned  Butterfly Conservations' "Butterfly Line"
(0891 884505) only to discover that many more Grizzled Skippers had
already been seen in the south of England last week, though the earliest
date was not given.  The earliest dates for Grizzled Skipper sightings in
the UK given in Heath & Emmet (eds.)(1989) "The moths & butterflies of
Great Britian & Ireland" Vol 7, is 7th April at Hereford and 9th April at
Eynesford, Kent, both in 1893! The species is not normally on the wing in
the UK until early May peaking in late May/early June.

Last week some recorders apparently saw more Grizzled Skippers than
they saw in the whole of last season! Last year UK Butterfly Monitoring
Scheme annual index for this species was the highest since 1985, and
more than double that for 1995! This species has been generally
declining in the UK, but it looks, at the moment, as if it will have a bumper
year!!

Other early sightings given out on Butterfly Line include: Pearl-bordered
Fritillary (Boloria euphrosyne) in Devon on 11th April, Dingy Skipper
(Erynnis tages) on 12th April (location not given) (not normally out until
mid-May at the earliest), and Brown Argus (Aricia agestis) in Suffolk on
13th April.

Nick Greatorex-Davies
ITE Monks Wood
Abbots Ripton
HUNTINGDON
Cambridgeshire PE17 2LS
UK

email: n.greatorex-davies at ite.ac.uk, or: ngd at wpo.nerc.ac.uk