www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

I do not have too many years experience to draw on and I may be imagining it, but there seems to have been abnormally high numbers of Whites recently. Has anybody else noticed this First it was the Large Whites and now it seems that Small Whites are unusually abundant.
With all the excitement of more exotic species reaching our shores recently, I wondered if our white population could also be being swelled by migration from the continent

"With all the excitement of more exotic species reaching our shores recently, I wondered if our white population could also be being swelled by migration from the continent "

Yes. Most years we see a late season influx of Large and Small Whites from mainland Europe, but this year it has been larger than normal and particularly prevalent from start Augut onwards.

BWs, Neil

Hi Neil
Thanks for the information

I suspect that the local population has been very high this year. We have seen far greater numbers of the second generation of Large Whites here than normal and Small Whites have also been very numerous. Possibly these have moved up the country to southern Scotland, but I think that a large proportion of them must be because of perfect breeding conditions this year.
The number of Painted Ladies has been about average and he have had records of two Clouded Yellows being seen (possibly the same individual on consecutive days ten miles apart).