Post by nomad on Jan 21, 2016 17:52:28 GMT
In Britain, Apatura iris is holding its own and even spreading to new areas. There has been a massive decline in most of our butterflies in Southern England through widespread habitat change through mismanagement and destruction and the spraying of cultivated land with chemicals. We has lost most of our unimproved meadows in Southern England and all of our fens. In spite of this, there are many wild and rugged places in South-west England, Wales and Scotland with a profusion of butterflies. Although the U.K has a small butterfly fauna, it has many island endemic subspecies and geographical races, that are little visited. In fact visiting all of these would take you a very long time. Climate change seems to be bringing in rare migrants, perhaps the most notable in recent years has been Nymphalis xanthomelas and Lampides boeticus. No new butterflies have yet established themselves in our country in spite of a warming climate. It could be that a warmer climate in Scandinavia is effecting the Parnassius species but I believe some apollo races died out there long before there was any talk of climatic change.
