Hot summer brings vintage year for butterflies

[neil at nwjones.demon.co.uk]

PRESS RELEASE 28 August 2003
Hot summer brings vintage year for butterflies

The record-breaking temperatures this summer have been a blessing for
Britain's hard-pressed butterflies, and have resulted in some astonishing
findings.

Many species have thrived in the hot weather, including some rarities such
as:
* Adonis Blue - more seen at a Dorset site on one day this August than in
whole summers since monitoring began there in 1980!  This species declined
by 52% nationally in the last century, but good numbers have been found on
other sites too this year.
* Wood White - best year in a decade at a Surrey stronghold (this species
declined by 76% in the last century).
* The High Brown Fritillary and Silver-studded Blue, both top conservation
priorities in the UK Biodiversity Action Plan, have also prospered.

Scarce species have also colonised new sites or undergone remarkable
movements:
* Silver-spotted Skipper - this rare butterfly has recolonised nature
reserves in central Hampshire where it became extinct in the 1970s.
* Dark Green Fritillary - seen in Wharfedale for the first time in 50 years.
* Chalkhill Blues - have been recorded 20 miles or more away from their
colonies in both Essex and Suffolk.

Some species have continued to spread northwards in response to the warmer
climate:
* Comma - recorded in Fife for the first time in almost 200 years.
* Speckled Wood - found in the Outer Hebrides for the first time ever.
* Migrant butterflies have also had a spectacular year.  In particular,
large numbers of Painted Ladies arrived in June from North Africa, spreading
as far north as Shetland, and are having a very successful breeding season
in the UK.  Long-tailed Blues and Swallowtails have also been seen in
numbers on the south coast.

Common 'garden' butterflies have enjoyed the long, hot summer too.  Notably,
the Small Tortoiseshell is having a great year after several years of
worryingly low numbers.

Richard Fox, Surveys Manager with Butterfly Conservation said "This has been
an excellent year for almost all our butterflies.  So many people work hard
every year to conserve our declining butterflies, whether in their gardens,
on farmland or in nature reserves, and this is the pay back on all that
investment.  Butterfly numbers are governed by the weather, but without the
protection and management of the habitats they need, many species would be
lost altogether.  When hard work by conservationists, landowners and the
public coincides with great weather, our hard-pressed butterflies are able
to win back some of the lost ground."

Notes to Editors

Butterfly Conservation is the largest insect conservation charity in Europe
with over 11,500 members in the UK.  Its aim is the conservation of
butterflies, moths and their habitats.  The Society runs conservation
programmes on over 60 threatened species of butterfly and moth, organises
national butterfly recording and monitoring schemes, and manages over 25
nature reserves.  Further information and details of rare and declining
butterflies can be found on our website http://www.butterfly-conservation.org.




 
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