Surveying and Conserving Yorkshires' Butterflies and Moths
Butterfly Conservation Yorkshire
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Occupancy-trend of the Chequered Skipper (bont dikkopje, C palaemon) in NL. After a long period of gradual decline distribution in 2024 and 2025 fell by almost 50%, esp. small populations were abandoned. Helas 2026 showed little recovery as far as we can tell now.
Yorkshire's monitored sites after the huge influx a week ago are still recording 2-5 Painted ladies per 1km. An abundance we've not seen since late July 2019. All set for an Explosion! www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Our latest Argus newsletter is now available at drive.google.com/file/d/1gIbB...
Chris van Swaay
Butterfly Conservation Yorkshire
Our Holly Blue caterpillars on the Alder Buckthorn have now acquired a couple of Black Garden Ants in attendance. The ants feed from the caterpillar’s honey gland. @bcwarwickshire.bsky.social @savebutterflies.bsky.social
Butterfly Conservation Yorkshire
I must have taken 100s of photos of Purple Emperor larvae over the years, but this one, from today, is probably my favourite ... showing just how camouflaged a fully grown larva is against a leaf of its foodplant (Salix caprea, Goat Willow, in this case).
Hundreds of Painted Lady butterflies in East Yorkshire today, along with smaller numbers of Silver Y moths and Red Admirals @migrantmothuk.bsky.social
Really valuable piece of research. We have used scrapes successfully on the old limestone quarries on Portland. A very different habitat but the vegetation recovers quickly and is also colonised by suitable ants, Lasius alienus. Sadly we do not have the resources to do enough to help SSB in big way
A nocturnal trip into my local woods with a UV torch turned up half a dozen Purple Emperor pupa shining like led’s
And another paper that's likely to spark debate
"Biodiversity offsetting, if properly implemented, can be an effective tool for pollinator conservation"
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Tom Lowe
UK Butterflies
martinswarren.bsky.social
Great footage of Brown Hairstreak larva interacting with ants on tonights Springwatch. Starts @42 minutes @bc-hertsmiddx.bsky.social @savebutterflies.bsky.social
www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...
Mark Tutton
Chris Packham and Michaela Strachan continue to celebrate the season at National Trust Crom in Northern Ireland, revealing a hidden world playing out in the reed beds.
It increasingly looks like scraping will be our preferred management treatment for future restoration of butterfly habitat on these heathland mine sites (at least where a humus layer has developed beneath the heather sward).
Migrant insects have been seen in large numbers along east coast thanks to heatwave and benign southerly winds
We show that even small differences in the composition of floral resources can result in significantly higher wild pollinator abundances and species richness in offset grasslands. Since our reference...
