White Admiral has a very fragile presence in Wales, to the very best of my knowledge it's only found in the larger mature woods in and around the beautiful Wye Valley in Monmouthshire/Gwent, and a few other woods slightly further afield. During several years of search and study of this wonderful woodland butterfly throughout it's core area I've never found it in any significant numbers, the exception being the good summer of 2006 when it could be seen in certain woods in double figures. The species had started it's move into Wales in the early 1950's and within thirty years most of the larger woods along the Wye Valley from Monmouth to Chepstow held at least a few. Apparently the extremely cold winter of 1962-63 had a devastating effect on the species and none were seen until around the turn of the 1970's, this would beg the question of the effect of our last few winters on
White Admiral in Monmouthshire. The last few years have seen small returns on numbers for those of us that regularly search for and record the species throughout it's chosen habitat, it undoubtably manages to survive the cold damp Welsh winter weather even if it's in the less exposed south eastern corner of Wales, but I personally believe that the past few winters have had a negative effect on it's numbers here.
It's hard to say that if in the not too distant future
White Admiral can expand it's range further into southern Wales, we simply don't have the large mature wooded areas (with good honeysuckle lianas) to support the species in the same way as southern England or indeed other UK areas where the species appear locally common. Climate change will obviously also have a big say, but it's taken almost sixty years for them to get this far, I wonder what the next sixty years will mean for the status of the
White Admiral in Wales.
Bill
