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Can species reintroductions be successful? The story of the lucky butterflies (part 2: Chequered Skippers)

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Chequered Skipper history  The UK's population of  Chequered Skipper butterfly  ( Carterocephalus palaemon ) has always been scarce. The only extant native populations are in ten core areas of West Scotland which seem to be stable. The English population, focussed around the East Midlands sadly declined until it went extinct in 1976. However, the Chequered Skipper conservation and reintroduction is another major success story in invertebrate conservation just like the Large Blue reintroduction . In May 2022, I was lucky enough to visit Fineshade Wood (Northamptonshire) to see the success of the Chequered Skipper reintroduction project. This is the only English population of Chequered Skippers after 40 years of being extinct.  Chequered Skipper male butterfly (Bob Eade) Ecology The Scottish Chequered Skipper has different ecological requirements, including different caterpillar host plants and habitat types. Scottish specimens are located on open damp grassland, dominated by tall Pu
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Can species reintroductions be successful? The story of the lucky butterflies (part 1: Large Blues)

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Large Blue history  The UK's population of Large Blue butterfly ( Phengaris arion ) has always been rare, and sadly declined until it went extinct in 1979. However, it's conservation and reintroduction has been a major success story in invertebrate conservation. Large Blue butterflies mating at Daneway Banks (June 2023) In June 2023, I was lucky enough to join a joint field meeting of the Royal Entomological Society (RES) and the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (BSBI) to see the success of the Large Blue reintroduction project at Daneway Banks SSSI (Gloucestershire). This population is not only the largest UK population, but also the largest population globally (since 2019)!  BSBI and RES field meeting at Daneway (17th June 2023) The Large Blue relies on the red ant Myrmica sabuleti  to complete its lifecycle. The decline of these ants in the 60s-70s resulted in the 1979 Large Blue UK extinction. These ants cannot build mounds to reach suitable microclimates (heat) un
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Butterfly surveys ... in winter?

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Confused? So was I when asked to help with December butterfly surveys. But, these weren't normal butterfly surveys. No, we were searching for butterfly eggs!  Although for most butterflies the most obvious way to search for them is in the spring and summer months as adults, for Brown Hairstreaks ( Thecla betulae ), egg searches are the most effective way to record this species and even to uncover a colony. The sites I surveyed have risen from 36 eggs to 186 eggs across only a year or two!  Winter hedge habitat for egg searches (Jen Jones) Butterfly lifecycles There are a few habitat specialists which are surveyed in a different way to standard butterfly transects (example recording forms  and methods  are on the UKBMS webpage). These include the Brown and White-letter Hairstreak egg counts, but also Duke of Burgundy , and Large Blue egg counts and Marsh and Glanville Fritillary larval web counts. Interestingly, the Green Hairstreak is the only UK Hairstreak species to not overw
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Invertebrate surveys

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Why bother? Invertebrates are excellent indicators of ecosystem health and make up most of life on Earth (97%). In the UK, we have more than 32,000 terrestrial and freshwater and 7,000 marine invertebrate species. Many of these are declining or endangered. Like the diversity of invertebrates, there are many survey techniques depending on the species you want to survey for (target taxa), habitats present, life stage, and whether you are proving presence/absence or calculating populations. What shall I survey? If I had the time I would survey everything but as much as I would love to, this just isn't achievable. So what are the main survey priorities? An excellent starting point is looking at the habitats present as this can inform which groups we might find more of and suggest how invertebrates use the site. It is useful to map habitats and features first, then choose the survey methods to use. This includes habitat type (broad and/or specific), size, connectivity, substrate type, w
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The first bumblebee of the year

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My first 2022 bumblebee (6th March 2022) The huge buff-tailed bumblebee queens are out of hibernation ready to start making their nests in time for all the spring flowers to come out. A rather appropriate anniversary gift for my Graham and I! The large queen bumblebees start flying on sunny days in early spring (some are  winter-active ). They are searching for food high in energy (nectar) and protein (pollen). You can see the neat-packed pollen baskets on bumblebee's hind legs and nectar is stored in their crop (similar to where birds store food). Sometimes the colour of the pollen can suggest what plant a bee has been visiting; I occasionally notice bumblebees with striped pollen baskets from visiting different flowers (see photo below).  Bumblebee with two types of pollen on hind leg Once fed, the bumblebee will be seen low flying (zig-zagging pattern) across habitats like grass verges, near compost heaps, and other habitats which may provide possible nesting holes. Most UK spec
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Bilberry bumblebees again... my Natural History Live talk

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Now, a tad late but here is the recording of my FSC presentation on the Long Mynd Bilberry Bumblebee project.  There are more FSC BioLinks videos from these two playlists: Natural History Live and FSC Virtual Meet Ups . Please give it a watch to learn about this species and the great work of the volunteers.  I also have a post here  with some more detail on the project and bilberry bumblebees .
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