British butterfly desperate for warm weather this summer

Butterflies are extremely sensitive to changes in temperature and new research has revealed that when summer weather turns bad the Silver-spotted skipper battles for survival.

June 2013. A 27 year study by researchers at the University of Exeter and others estimated changes in temperature across a range of silver-spotted skipper habitats and found that localised fluctuations in temperature lead to extreme fluctuations in the butterfly population size and in the probability of the butterflies colonising new sites. The butterfly, which previously faced extinction from habitat loss, is recovering following conservation efforts but the recent cool wet summers in England have almost stalled its progress.

Lead author Dr Jonathan Bennie from the Environment and Sustainability Institute at the University of Exeter said: "Although we know that the climate overall is warming there is still much variability in the weather from one year to the next. This variability presents a threat to southern British butterflies that we might expect to take advantage of warmer conditions to colonise further north. In warmer years the silver-spotted skipper, which needs a balmy 25°C to become fully active, has expanded its range. However during the recent cold wet summers we have found the skipper clinging to the warmest south-facing hillsides waiting for better weather."

Continued

The humble British butterfly

As a schoolboy, Robin Page might have struggled to distinguish between a red admiral and a painted lady, but nowadays the author of The Great British Butterfly Safari can think of nothing less.

By Robin Page

It has come to my attention that I am suffering from something of an addiction. An obsession, even. And the source of my fascination? Butterflies.

Beautiful, colourful and fragile. In my youth, I hardly noticed them at all. There were yellow ones, cabbage whites, peacocks and tortoiseshells –large and small – but my knowledge extended no further than that of the average schoolboy.

So how did my obsession unfold? It was all Gordon Beningfield’s fault.

He was the artist and conservationist who turned butterfly illustration into genuine art, and it was his work that converted me to the wonderful summer-long procession of everchanging beauty, which is the world of butterflies. I had caught the bug.

Before long the first and last butterfly of the year had become a matter of great excitement, as enthralling as anything else in nature.

Experts argue over the number of butterflies living in Britain. Some think 57, while others climb to 61. Ten years ago, I decided to find out for myself and embarked on The Great British Butterfly Safari, which became a book.

Read on:  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sponsored/travel/hidden-britain/9170881/british-butterfly-guide-robin-page.html