Butterflies on the brink of extinction after wet summer

Britain's butterflies have suffered their worst year for more than a quarter of a century, with many species hovering on the brink of extinction.



A wet summer, intensive agriculture and housing development have left 12 species in particular at their lowest numbers since records began more than 30 years ago.

These include the high brown fritillary, which has fewer than 50 colonies around the UK, many of them small, and the wood white, with under 100 colonies.



Small Tortoiseshell butterfly: Numbers are down 61 per cent in the past 30 years

Pearl-bordered fritillary: It has plummeted by two-thirds in two decades

Other species at their lowest ebb since the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme began in 1976 include the small tortoiseshell (down 61 per cent over the past 30 years), and the pearl-bordered fritillary (down by two-thirds in the past 20 years).

Across the board, butterflies had their worst year since 1981, when the summer was particularly cold.

Rain and cold make it difficult for the delicate creatures to fly and leave them vulnerable to predators.

High Brown fritillary: Under 50 colonies left in the UK

The summer of 2007 was the wettest for nearly 100 years, while last August was also dull and wet.

Tom Brereton, head of monitoring at Butterfly Conservation, said: 'We feel the cold when it rains but imagine a drop of water on a tiny butterfly. It prevents them from doing anything and they have less time to breed, find food or lay their eggs.

'If we have a nice, sunny year, some species will bounce back, but some species got to such a low ebb on some sites we're not sure if it has tipped them over the edge of extinction.

'A lot of sites are quite isolated, and when they go, it's not easy for them to get recolonised.'

But some butterflies are still flying high. The ringlet and large heath butterfly, which are better at tolerating rain, both had their secondbest year ever, the study showed.

Dr Brereton called for better management of woodland and protected sites, adding: 'Insects are good indicators about the state of the environment and if they have got problems it indicates a lot of other wildlife is under threat.'

The study, run by Butterfly Conservation and the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, saw 1,500 volunteers monitoring butterfly numbers weekly through the summer at about 920 sites around Britain.



Cuckoos at crisis point



The cuckoo is on the verge of being put on the endangered species list in Britain, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds has warned.

The songbird's numbers have dropped by 59 per cent since the late 1960s and 30 per cent in the past 12 years alone, with only between 10,000 and 20,000 breeding pairs now migrating from Africa to hatch and rear their young here each year.

Ornithologists say fewer are making the 6,000-mile trip here because food and water sources are drying up in Africa, making the journey more arduous.