Butterflies are pretty unproblematic beings. Unlike wasps, they tend to flutter around minding their own business – and look pretty while doing it. But over the years, there have been fewer and fewer flying through our skies. According to research 80 percent of the UK’s butterfly species have disappeared since the 1970s.
One species in particular – the Northern Brown Argus butterfly – had not been spotted in Stirlingshire, Scotland in 100 years, according to official records. Small and chocolate brown with small, orange crescents lining the edge of its wings, it was believed extinct in the region thanks to habitat loss. But now, excitingly, it appears to have made a return.
Northern Brown Angus caterpillars only eat common rock-rose, so one local volunteer from the charity, Butterfly Conservation, planted one in her garden in the Ochil Hills in the hopes of bringing the creatures out of hiding. And indeed, a Northern Brown Argus emerged. A further search of a nearby hillside found a few small colonies of the species.
David Hill, conservation manager at the charity, said: ‘This is a once-in-a-lifetime event, the reemergence of a previously locally extinct species in its former habitat is incredibly special and rare.
‘We’re committed to protecting the Northern Brown Argus and helping it to thrive, with hopes that it will spread across its former home and stretch right across the Ochil Hills once again.’
Did you see that these extremely rare dolphins have been spotted off the UK coast for the first time?
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