Jennifer Jones Ecology

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, domin...

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 speci...

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...

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 .

In my totally 'unbiased' view, these are the best UK  bumblebee  species.  Not only are they super fluffy like other bumblebees, they are adorably sized, and are found in one of my favourite habitat types;  upland heath. BB worker near Pumlumon (June 2018) I have only seen this species once and I was lucky enough to almost study their foraging behaviour for my MSc thesis.  Unfortunately due to the current situation (coronavirus again!) the MSc field work didn't happen.  However, I have just finished writing up the 2020 season report from volunteer data from Bumblebees on the Mynd so this is a perfect time to share this!  Here are some links to check out for these bumblebees and brain wash you all with their fluffiness.  I mean, look at their cute little red bums! Bumblebee Conservation Trust BWARS Steven Falk's Flickr BBCT Pollinating the Peak project by Rho Green at BBCT ( @BuzzingPeak ) Bumblebees on the Mynd National Trust project  @Bumbl...