News: April 2003

A survey carried out by Butterfly Conservation, in which 11,000 people participated, has highlighted the importance of the garden habitat.

Survey manager, Richard Fox, noted that in a country where 97% of wildflower meadows have been lost since the 1940s, gardens could, potentially, play a vital role in the conservation of several species of butterfly. Butterfly Conservation would like us to make our gardens more butterfly friendly by planting nectar-rich plants like forget-me-nots, violets and asters as well as tolerating areas of vital food plants like stinging nettles and thistles.

Among the findings of the survey was that the small and large whites are the butterflies most frequently encountered in UK gardens, but that these become less frequent as you move north, where they are replaced by species such as the peacock and comma. The survey also supported the view that the wall is a declining species in Britain.

Fiona Dungey. 2003. Gardens are great places for butterflies. Viewed on the web at http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/news/news.shtml on April 11th 2003.