Why we all need to worry about the decline in native butterflies

Faye Dobson

Butterfly populations are an important gauge of the health of local habitats and wider climate change. As families this weekend join the Big Butterfly Count, Faye Dobson explains what population changes mean, and how you can get involved

 

Changes in butterfly populations are often an indicator of the health of the wider environment. Picture by Jim Asher.

Although butterflies may seem like an attractive addition to your flower garden they are a more important insect than most people realise. Acting as a vital wildlife indicator, butterflies can tell us almost everything we need to know about the health of an ecosystem. But from the Meadow Brown to the Swallowtail, British native butterfly species are slowly disappearing.
 
According to a report by the Dorset-based charity Butterfly Conservation, 72 per cent of butterfly and moth species have declined in the last ten years, and 54 per cent have decreased in the UK. Even the abundance of common garden butterflies, such as the Red Admiral, has dropped by 24 per cent. 

Butterflies react extremely quickly to even minor changes in the environment, making them both a good indicator of biodiversity and providing an early warning system for other reductions in wildlife. As a result, they are now the best-monitored group of insects in the world.

But British butterfly numbers have hit an all time low in the last three years due to poor summer weather. 

Tropical World in Leeds is home to between 30 and 40 butterfly species that fly around in the tropical environment of exotic flowering plants and Citrus trees. Stephen Dickie, head keeper, said: “Obviously we’ve had lots of rain and quite unpleasant weather recently. British butterflies tend to be most abundant in the summer months but it needs to be sunny, dry, and warm to get them flying around. If they’re not flying around, they’re not feeding and if they’re not feeding they’re not going to survive for very long.”

Richard Fox from the charity Butterfly Conservation adds: “We’re concerned that many butterflies may have suffered extremely poor breeding seasons this year as a result of the record-breaking wet weather. We are drawing parallels with the wet summer of 2007, which also resulted in widespread flooding and saw butterfly numbers plummet.

“Many species are likely to be affected from widespread butterflies such as the Common Blue to rarities such as the Duke of Burgundy.”

A decline in butterflies would also have a knock-on effect on other British species, in particular birds such as blue tits, jays and sparrows.
 
Stephen Dickie explains: “Birds plan their whole breeding season around when caterpillars will be most abundant. If the butterfly and caterpillar numbers are depleted then there’s not going to be a lot of food for developing chicks.”

Plants will also be affected. Butterflies are a major pollinator of both wild and cultivated plants. Without them and other important pollinating insects flying around, there will be a significant decline in viable seed produced. 

Marsland Nature Reserve, on the border between Devon and Cornwall and now under the auspices of Devon Wildlife Trust, specialises in the cultivation of butterfly habitats, in particular the Pearl and Small Pearl Bordered Fritillary. Stephen Threlkeld, an officer at the reserve, said: “Most Fritillaries are struggling across the country but they are doing well on our site. We have a large area of pristine habitat suitable for them. Maintaining the early successional habitats, especially bracken, means they’re coping well. We’ve also got a lot of violets growing – the preferred food plant for Fritillary larvae.

“The problem for butterflies in most other areas is their habitat is disappearing – whether it’s because of agriculture or even just neglect.

“Grassland species in particular are struggling – probably as a result of the weather. But the Ringlet is doing well this year because it can fly in the rain.”

Since 2010, ‘citizen scientists’ across the UK have been taking part in the Big Butterfly Count to help monitor the ailing butterfly species. That year, 10,000 people took part in the count, which rose to 34,000 in 2011. This year’s event is taking place between now and next Sunday (August 5). 

The count involves members of the public counting butterflies for 15 minutes, recording what they see and entering the data onto the website. This then helps the organisers, Butterfly Conservation, to identify trends in butterfly species and better plan how to protect them from extinction. 

Spokesman Richard Fox says: “We can’t do anything about the weather, but everyone can do something to help butterflies this summer by taking part in the count. It is the perfect thing to get the whole family involved in and to help hard-pressed butterflies at the same time.”

Another benefit of the butterflies’ extreme sensitivity is that it can help experts to judge the effect climate change is now having on wildlife. Certain butterfly species, for instance, can only survive in specific global territories due to the temperature. So as climate change triggers higher temperatures (global warming), these species are forced to move northwards to new areas, which, also as a result of climate change, now have a climate more similar to their original habitats. 

According to a report in Nature, from a sample of 35 non-migratory butterfly species, 63 per cent have ranges that have shifted to the north by between 35 and 240 kilometers, reflecting the shift in climate.

So what hope is there for the declining populations of British butterflies? 

Many species from Europe migrate to Britain over the summer, but this year, because of the wet weather, they have not migrated. With some warm weather this trend would reverse and the European butterflies will come across and join the remaining native species.  “We only need a short spell of sun. Butterflies are egg machines and they don’t need a lot of hot weather to get the population back up,” says Stephen Threlkeld.

The good news is that there are a number of ways we can all help encourage more butterflies into our gardens to lay their eggs.

Butterflies prefer open spaces that are sunny but sheltered, as it would be in a woodland glade, so the idea is to recreate this environment in your garden. Large trees and shrubs are good to provide shelter, as well as plenty of vegetation, reduced use of pesticides and some good sources of nectar.  Food plants for caterpillars are also essential, including holly, ivy and buckthorn.

Leaving an area of long grass will encourage species such as Meadow Brown, Ringlet, Gatekeeper and Large Skipper, as well as giving caterpillars and pupae somewhere to hide along with other creatures such as beetles and spiders.

Faye Dobson is a trainee journalist at Leeds Trinity University College. She has a background in Environmental Geography.

Original Post

All of a flutter! Experts find new species of butterfly in Northern Ireland and it's 70,000 years old

A new species of butterfly has taken scientists by surprise after it was discovered fluttering in Northern Ireland.

Experts had no idea that the Cryptic wood white even existed as they launched a conservation project across the UK.

The rare butterfly looks identical to the Réals wood white and the wood white, a delicate insect found in English woodlands in summer.

Discovered: The Cryptic wood white butterfly stunned scientists when it was found fluttering in Northern Ireland

But experts who have studied the Cryptic wood white found that it has more chromosomes and genetically it is 70,000 years old meaning it has been on earth far longer than the other two species.

It's a very exciting discovery. We are going to have to rewrite the butterfly books,' Martin Warren, chief executive of Butterfly Conservation, told the Guardian.

The discovery came as Sir David Attenborough urged people to take part in a nationwide count of butterflies to help find out if the hot, dry spring has hit the 'bewitching' insects.

The naturalist, who is president of wildlife charity Butterfly Conservation, said butterflies were one of the 'stars of the British countryside', but warned they were in long-term decline.

And in the wake of one of the hottest and driest springs on record, with some areas of the country hit by drought, the nationwide survey is important to find out how butterflies are faring, Butterfly Conservation said.

Butterfly count plea: Conservationist Sir David Attenborough

The wildlife charity wants to see whether butterflies, many of which emerged much earlier than usual as a result of the hot, dry conditions, have managed to turn round declining fortunes or have starved as the plants they feed on wilt in the drought.

Butterfly Conservation is running the annual Big Butterfly Count from July 16-31, and is urging the public to take 15 minutes in a sunny place to count all the butterflies they can see, and then submit their sightings online.

The results will help conservationists see the impact of the unusual spring weather, as well as track the progress of garden favourites such as the small tortoiseshell and the peacock butterfly, which have seen populations plummet.

Butterflies are also seen as a key indicator of the health of the countryside and can give conservationists a good idea of how the environment as a whole is doing.

Sir David said: 'Butterflies are one of the stars of the British countryside. Summer just wouldn't be summer without them. But they continue to be in long-term decline.

'It's more vital than ever to know where they can be found and in what numbers. Now you can play your part in helping to save them by getting involved in the Big Butterfly Count.

'Taking part is easy and great fun. By recording butterflies in a 15-minute count, you can make a real contribution to our understanding of these beautiful creatures.
'I urge everyone, young and old, to take part in the Big Butterfly Count to help us assess the fortunes of these bewitching creatures.'

Last year's count, in which 10,000 people recorded 189,000 butterflies, revealed that the most common butterfly in Britain, the meadow brown, had its worst year on record but the common blue had a very good summer.

This year, the count is focusing on 19 widespread species including a couple of day-flying moths, and Butterfly Conservation is providing a downloadable chart to help people identify them.

Full Story

Where have all the British botanists gone, just when we need them?

We are desperate for new crops, drugs and energy sources but plant science graduates have become an endangered species, says Professor Steve Jones. 

By Steve Jones 

The Botanic Garden in the University of Oxford. 

 U

Plant scientists have become an endangered species in Britain, says Steve Jones.

'I’d like to see them starving,/The so-called working class,/Their wages yearly halving,/Their women boiling grass”. Thus wrote Philip Larkin in a poem that can have no relevance to Britain today, for he was writing before the era of coalition politics. 

Boiled grass may, in fact, soon be on the menu, because of advances in a science which has revolutionised our lives and yet – at least when it comes to producing a new generation of practitioners – has almost vanished from the British scene. Botany has disappeared as an A-level subject, just 10 universities offer degrees in plant science (at least one is thinking of dropping it) and there are no more than 100 graduates each year. Most places have a grotesque imbalance between researchers using plants and using animals, humans included (a 500-to-one ratio in my own institution).

Yet plants are not just beautiful, diverse and easy to handle, but we depend upon them for food, for fuel, for drugs and (not to be forgotten) for aesthetic sensibility.
Why do students find the vegetable world so boring when without it we would perish? The United States (unlike Britain, where less than a third of our landscape is suitable for crops and we need crop-land twice the size of these islands to feed ourselves) now has enough acreage to grow all the food it might need, plus a bit over. In just 40 years, population growth, urbanisation and loss of soil mean that the amount of fertile land per head will drop by ten times. To guard against that, the Americans are pouring in billions to a plan to double maize yields in two decades. A quarter of all medicines are plant-based, or were discovered in that kingdom, and the need for sustainable fuel has led to the – unsustainable – use of food plants or oil palms to make alcohol-enhanced petrol. New crops, new drugs and new sources of energy are needed but the annual crop of British botany graduates is now so reduced as to make them an endangered species.
Ironically, the technical advances in DNA research that came from the Human Genome Project (and disappointed those who had hoped for a revolution in medicine) has transformed the study of plants. New genes for increased production (such as grass with enough sugar to make it palatable, and clovers that make far more nitrogen fertiliser than before) are emerging fast. Many of our crops, wheat included, are natural hybrids between wild species, and the hunt is on for ways to disrupt the inborn mechanisms that stop other potentially valuable mongrels from being made. Already, distantly related kinds are being persuaded to mate to generate varieties resistant to heat, salt, flooding, drought and to the other good things promised by global warming.
One escape from that problem is to use plants as fuel. Much of the biofuel market is driven by the economics of the madhouse, for subsidies make it profitable to burn crops that could be eaten. Elephant grass is a 15ft Asian giant that can grow on barren land and is four times better than maize at producing fuel. It is already being burned in British power stations, but almost everywhere just one strain is used. Expeditions to Japan and China have found wild varieties that might do the job even better. The plan is to double the plant’s yield and to have one kilowatt in every eight of Britain’s electricity generated from the crop in two decades.
In fact, all these projects are under way in one intellectual hot-house in west Wales. Here I must declare an interest, for I am on its advisory board, and have just returned from my annual visit. The University of Aberystwyth’s Institute of Biological Environmental and Rural Sciences is a world centre for the new plant science – but even there it is hard to attract school-leavers to study the subject and to find funds to pay for it.
In spite of the astonishing progress being made there and in other great research centres such as Norwich, Nottingham, Cambridge and Oxford, none of their work has more relevance for the future than does an agricultural adage from before science began: that, both for plants and for the people who study them, to eat the seed corn today will be to starve tomorrow.
Steve Jones is Professor of Genetics at University College London

Story 

• Fifty Years of Science in India: Progress of Botany 
• One Hundred Years of Plant Pathology in India 
• Fungi of India 1989-2001 
• A bibliography of the botany of British India and Ceylon 
• Botany in India: History and Progress 
• Lowson's textbook of botany: Edition for India, Pakistan, and Ceylon 
• Chapters on the History of Botany in India 

New British moth found in Hembury Woods is world first

By Matt Walker
Editor, Earth News

The type specimen

A moth new to science and found nowhere else in the world has been formally recognised as living in the UK.

The 3mm-long micro moth, which lives in Hembury Woods in Devon, was recognised as a new species this year.
This week, the biologist who discovered it is presenting the Natural History Museum of London with one of the first known specimens.
The receipt of this "type" specimen will mark the official acceptance of the moth's existence in the country.
The tiny micro moth, which has a wingspan of just 6mm, was first spotted in 2004.

Hembury Woods: home to the moth

At that time, amateur naturalist Bob Heckford sighted the unusual bright green caterpillars of this tiny leaf-mining moth on oak saplings within Hembury Woods, a site managed by the National Trust.
In January this year, the moth was officially recognised in the journal Zookeys as a new species, named Ectoedemia heckfordi after its discoverer.
It is not known to live outside of the UK.
Official presentation
Now Mr Heckford is presenting the Natural History Museum with the original specimen.
That is important, because it marks the official acknowledgement by the scientific world of the specimen as the "type" for that species, against which any future finds will be compared and determined.
"We hear so much about the losses to the natural world, and less about the gains; which makes this find, however small, so important," says Matthew Oates, an adviser on nature conservation at the National Trust.
"Amateur naturalists have a wonderful window on the wildlife world and nature continues to amaze us and throw up surprises even in the UK."
There are well over 2,000 species of micro moth in the UK.
They come in various shapes and sizes, but many are extremely pretty, though only appreciated under magnification.
A few are actually larger than some larger, so-called macro moths.

Dark mines made by the caterpillar of the species

Their biology varies.
Most are plant feeders, with larvae often mining galleries in leaves, between the leaf surfaces.
A few mine stems.
Some, though, breed in fungi and a few have aquatic larvae.
Most are nocturnal but quite a few also fly by day.
Caterpillars of the new species are found mostly on oak saplings and low growth of oak in the shade.
The mines they make are quite dark and the caterpillars are bright green which is quite unusual for micro moths.
The adults lay their eggs on the underside of the leaf.

Story


Moths (Fauna of India ; Moths)
Life-histories of Indian insects: Microlepidoptera (Memoirs of the Department of Agriculture in India : Entomological series)
The Fauna Of British India Including Ceylon And Burma..Moths...Three Volume Set..1892,1894, and 1895
The silkworm moths of India;: Or, Indian Saturnidae: a family of bombycia moths, with antennae of males distichously pectinate and body wooly. Six plates, ... work on the silkworm moths of India