Key Facts about: Wildlife
Populations of butterflies: 1976-2005
England
The overall population of butterflies has fluctuated over the last thirty years, with peaks at six to eight year intervals, and a progressive decline over a 30 year period.
The 19 'specialist' species have fared worse than the 23 'generalist' species. In 2001 populations of specialist species were almost 60 per cent lower than in the baseline year of 1976 but in 2004 and 2005 had recovered to be just over 40 per cent below the baseline.
Butterflies are considered good biodiversity indicators because they respond rapidly to changes in environment and management, occur in a wide range of habitats, and are representative of many other insects, which collectively account for more than 50 per cent of terrestrial UK wildlife species. Butterflies play a complementary role to birds as an indicator, because they use the landscape at a far finer scale.
The indicator includes the 42 out of 54 native resident English butterfly species for which sufficient monitoring data are available. The indicator includes a breakdown for 19 specialist (low mobility species restricted to semi-natural habitats) and 23 generalist (mobile species that occur in a wide range of habitats in the wider countryside) species, from data collected at approximately 1,000 sites.
In Detail:
Further Information:
- Source:
- Butterfly Conservation, Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (Wallingford) (CEH)
- Key Facts:
- Populations of moths
Data Tables:
Download Chart Data: Microsoft Excel Population of butterflies
- Internet Links:
- Butterfly Conservation
- UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (UKBMS)
- Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH)
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Page last modified: 27 October 2006
Page published: 27 October 2006