It's been a dreadful year for insects, whether in the garden or out in the countryside, with precious few on the many flowers in bloom on plants which have shown few signs of suffering unduly in the dry, cold, breezy and grey conditions which have characterised the summer of 2026.
However, one insect group has visibly declined in numbers - the butterflies, their absence notable because....
....many are so gloriously colourful. So we've seen peacocks (above) and tortoiseshells and red admirals and whites and fritillaries and blues and ringlets and a small copper or two and....
....we've had the pleasure of visits from painted ladies; and....
....in the dappled shade of the woodland we've seen one species which has bucked the general decline, the speckled woods; but with these one or two exception we've seen precious few butterflies this summer.
So, yesterday, in classic 'showers with sunny intervals', we saw one painted lady and one peacock, possibly the last of the few we've seen this year.
We have very few butterflies in Devon as well, Jon. Meadow Browns and Gatekeepers have been plentiful on our mint flowers with Red Admirals and some whites seen abouts. I also note, as you say, that Speckled Woods have bucked the trend. Ocasionally I have spotted Small Coppers and Holly Blues passing through and a couple of Painted Ladys; but one enjoyment especially noteworthy is that a Clouded Yellow has taken to our garden and remained for at least four weeks. I saw him again today. I last saw a Clouded Yellow back in 1983. By the way, is the plural of Painted Lady 'Painted Ladys' to denote the multiple propper noun? Google, of course, tells you differently!
ReplyDeleteHi Derryck - I'm so relieved that someone else is as worried as I am about the state of our insects! The media seems to trumpet the occasional success story but fails to broadcast that there is a crisis going on to which few seem to give any notice. And with climate change accelerating, the prospects are not good.
DeleteOn your other note, Mrs MW checks all my spelling and grammar so I will have to have a very severe word with her.
Jon