There is an update on this vandal on Butterfly Conservation's website Rare butterflies flourish on site since attack Prees Heath wetland habitat A man found guilty of vandalising a nature reserve that is home to rare butterflies, has lost his appeal against conviction. Anthony Barnett was convicted ...

A halved gynandromorph has emerged live at the NHM!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/14108204

Pete Eeles wrote:Paper here:

http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pd ... 11-109.pdf

Cheers,

- Pete

Actually that isn't the paper concerned.
This is
http://www.nature.com/ncomms/journal/v2 ... #/abstract

This was in the Daily Express. It is perhaps a good example of why you should not believe everything that you read in the newspapers! By Nathan Rao A COLONY of one of Britain’s rarest butterflies is under threat after a group of travellers moved on to a nature reserve. Some 60 travellers descended o...

An update from the Shropshire Star Bags of rubbish have been left strewn across a Shropshire nature reserve after travellers who set up camp there moved on. More than 40 caravans were parked on Prees Heath Common, near Whitchurch for a week. But now the travellers have moved on, conservationists sai...

If I walked through someone's front door when it was left open and sat down in the lounge in front of their television, does anyone really think I'd be treated more sympathetically than if I'd have broken a lock to get there? Then the householder could sue you for trespass, but that is all, the pol...

This happened at Prees Heath the Butterfly Conservation nature reserve. At Shrewsbury Magistrates’ Court yesterday Antony Barnett, 71, of The Grove, Hodnet, was found guilty of causing criminal damage at the site on August 9 last year and ordered to pay £4,500 compensation. The court heard a digger ...

So do you also object to BC's "deception" by not publishing information too? As Neil Jones asks, what are they keeping quiet? I suppose if a senior member of staff were to be having an adulterous fling with a junior, then that is nothing to do with conservation and confidentially is justi...

But I am very strongly against secrecy in these matters – it amounts to deception and no-one knows just what is a natural occurrence, and what is the result of human activity. So do you also object to BC's "deception" by not publishing information too? Cheers, - Pete What information does...

Interesting. Just to point out one thing. As far as I can find, and it is something that I would expect to know anyway as part of my everyday life, there is no such thing as , "The Intellectual Copyright Act". Probably meant the Copyright Act, which I believe covers intellectual property....

Interesting. Just to point out one thing. As far as I can find, and it is something that I would expect to know anyway as part of my everyday life, there is no such thing as , "The Intellectual Copyright Act".

I take great pleasure every spring in visiting the Glanvilles at Sand Point. They are a real delight, and it is always a highlight of my year. Now, they were an introduction many years ago. They disappeared for a few years, and have now reappeared. This poses so many questions. Did they really die ...

We could have an off-beat challenge for next season. How many INTRODUCED species we can see? Collard Hill (and elsewhere) - Large Blue Sand Point - Glanville Fritillary Lindrick Common – Scotch Argus, Marbled White, Dark Green Fritillary, Silver Studded Blue Finemere Woo d – Marbled Fritillary Cham...

Some species are returned from whence they came, some go back to the original provider of the livestock (typically as pupae since I'm usually most interested in studying the immature stages - sending adults in the post is a "no no"). I whole heartedly agree that adults should not be sent ...

Jack Harrison wrote:

Take the Swallowtails that used to exists at Woodwalton Fen until the 1950s.

Typo I presume. Swallowtails at Wicken Fen. Woodwalton was noted for its artificially maintained Large Copper colony.

Jack

Yes I meant Wicken Fen.

Talking of swallowtails - one local reserve lost all caterpillars accessable from the boardwalk one evening this year. Breeders claim that their swallowtails have been captive-bred since before the law protecting the swallowtail came into force. That's why they are allowed to sell the larvae and pi...

Hi Neil Some interesting information there. This just backs up my argument in that the genetic mingling you refer to would have been perfectly natural and wholly acceptable. The Swallowtail was just an example of a possibility that was brought up by Jack. My worry is where the gene pool of a very s...

I think personally that natural immigration is fine. If it is going to happen, then that's the natural way of things, such as the example of Swallowtails. It may even be that an influx of the european vagrants is necessary to ensure the diversity of the genetic make up of the British Swallowtails. ...

What I would worry about most is if an expert were releasing species without informing anybody, as an expert should know better than anybody the implications. I would be forced to conclude that such behaviour would amount to a giant 'vanity project'. Surely, it may be that the "expert" in...

I too have regularly bred Small Tortoiseshells and Peacocks over the years, and in 2009, Painted Ladies. My children have always found it fascinating: the youngest took some Peacock caterpillars to school where despite much prodding and poking by his chums, they successfully became adults. No harm ...