BUTTERFLY COUNT REVEALS 2019 IS THE YEAR OF THE PAINTED LADY

In just 3 weeks this summer, nearly half a million Painted Lady butterflies were counted as part of the 10th UK-wide Big Butterfly Count, run by Butterfly Conservation and sponsored by B&Q.

The wildlife charity has confirmed that 2019 has been a ‘Painted Lady Year’ – a natural phenomenon that happens about once in a decade, when unusually high numbers of this migratory butterfly arrive in the UK.

It is too early to tell how 2019 compares to the last ‘Painted Lady Year’ in 2009, but the number seen in this year’s Big Butterfly Count was almost 30 times greater than in the 2018 survey, equating to an increase per count of 2498% on the year before.

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Several other common species have experienced a bumper summer, helped by the fine weather.

The Peacock had its best summer since 2014, with counts up a massive 235% on last year. The Marbled White experienced a 264% increase and there was a 64% rise in counts for the colourful red and black Six-spot Burnet moth.

Populations of Red Admiral and Gatekeeper were up 138% and 95% respectively compared to the same period last year and the beleaguered Small Tortoiseshell had its best Big Butterfly Count result since 2014, with around 70,000 spotted this summer.

Despite this, scientists remain concerned about the Small Tortoiseshell’s long-term future – this once common and widespread butterfly has declined by 78% since the 1970s.

Butterfly Conservation’s Associate Director of Recording and Research, Richard Fox, said:

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“Last year the Small Tortoiseshell experienced its worst summer in the history of the Big Butterfly Count, so to see its numbers jump up by 167% this year is a big relief. But what’s really interesting when we look at the results is how this species performed far better in Scotland and Northern Ireland this year – where it was the second most seen butterfly during the Count – but didn’t do nearly as well in England and Wales, where it only just made the Top 10. On average, participants in Scotland and Northern Ireland saw over twice as many Small Tortoiseshells per Count than people in England.

“We’re still trying to establish what is behind the long-term decline of the Small Tortoiseshell and while it is good news that the butterfly fared better this summer, the poor results in southern England in particular suggest that climate change may be having more of an impact on this species than we have previously realised.”

This year more than 113,500 people took part in the Big Butterfly Count, the largest survey of its kind in the world, spotting nearly 1.6 million butterflies in the UK during the 3-week, high-summer recording period.

Richard added:

“The Painted Lady obviously stole the show this summer, taking the top spot in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, but 2019 has also been the most successful Big Butterfly Count in its 10-year history, with more people taking part and more counts being submitted than ever before.”

The Big Butterfly Count results can be found at www.bigbutterflycount.org and these will be used by scientists to see how the UK’s common species are faring and where to target future conservation work.

Big Butterfly Count 2019 – top 10 species ranking (UK)