www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Every piece of reasonably large grassland habitat seems to have Brown Argus this year in extrememly good numbers. Totternhoe, Ivinghoe, Devils Dyke, Burwell, etc. Today not 400 metres from home I found 6 or 7 in a locality where I hadn't seen them during the previous 15 years I have lived here (South Cambridgeshire)

I first saw Small Heath in this locality two years ago. Today it must have been 20+ if not many more. I gave up counting.

The habitat is just perfect for Marbled White but I haven't yet seen them there. I understand they have recently colonised parts of Royston Heath a mere 10 kilometres away so here's hoping for this year. It will not surprise me one little bit if they turn up.

Locality TL424393

Jack

The spread of the brown argus across East Anglia has been quite spectacular! When I was a boy in Suffolk it was found only in the extreme West and North of the county, particularly in the Brecklands. Some time after I left school and went to university it spread right to the East coast and I remember well the first one I saw in my garden in Woodbridge.

Is it possible the return of rabbits since the awful myxomatosis days has kept grass low enough for rock rose, stork's bills and crane's bills to flourish where they were swamped out before? A sedentary butterfly like the brown argus might take a long time to recover. I'm not sure if brown argus has an ant relationship, but if it does, that might be a factor too (and many species of ant found life cooler and more difficult when the grass got long in myxomatosis days).

Anyway, it's jolly good news, because this is a really lovely butterfly. I hope someone is studying its rise to see if any lessons can be learnt.

Guy