Butterflies & Moths
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Plants Management summary Key actions Potential benefits Rare arable plants • Where conditions allow, leave crop headlands Will create the conditions arable plants unsprayed and unfertilised, establish open need to germinate and set seed each year cultivated margins or field corners, leave cereal stubbles over winter Grassland plants • Management of species-rich grasslands should Traditional management, usually by grazing not be changed without advice or cutting for hay, maintains species- richness • Calcareous grasslands are best managed by An open and varied sward will allow a range grazing, and regimes may need to be tailored of chalk and limestone grassland species to to the site flourish • Dry acid grasslands and lowland heaths need The right management will be needed to careful management, seek advice maintain these habitats in good condition Grassland • Follow agri-environment scheme guidelines Can help restore species-rich grasslands restoration and with many ecological and environmental arable reversion benefits Uncropped field • Establish margins by natural regeneration or Can help restore diverse plant communities margins sowing. Margins should not be sown where rare around arable and grass fields. arable plants are present. Elephant hawkmoth © Rob Wolton, Hedgelink Options especially relevant for plants Code Countryside stewardship options Tier Butterflies and moths are among the most strikingly bright AB7 Whole crop cereals Mid Butterflies & and beautiful insect species found in the British countryside. AB10 Unharvested cereal headland Mid They need specific plant species for the caterpillars to feed AB11 Cultivated areas for arable plants Mid moths on, flowers as nectar sources for the adults, and safe places to AB14 Harvested low input cereal Mid shelter and overwinter. Butterflies and moths can be regarded GS2 Permanent grassland with very low inputs (outside SDAs) Mid as indicators of habitat quality on a farm: the more butterflies GS5 Permanent grassland with very low inputs in SDA Mid and moths there are, the more likely the farm will have a rich GS6 Management of species-rich grassland Higher variety of wildlife. GS7 Restoration towards species-rich grassland Higher GS8 Creation of species-rich grassland Higher GS15 Haymaking supplement Mid Key points Find out more at: • Butterflies and moths need nectar sources, specific www.plantlife.org.uk www.naturalengland.org.uk www.floodplainmeadows.org.uk foodplants for the caterpillars, and sheltered areas • Grassland, hedgerows, field margins and woodland habitats are all valuable • Creating a variety of habitat types will benefit the widest range of species 88 Wildlife and Farming Wildlife and Farming 89 Butterflies & moths Around 60 species of butterfly are seen regularly in the UK, comprising less than 3% of British Lepidoptera The most common butterflies and moths are those that are (butterflies and moths). The less demanding, whose caterpillars feed on a common plant or remaining 2, 500 or so species are a number of different plants. Meadow brown and gatekeeper moths but, as most of them fly at butterflies, for example, lay their eggs on grasses, while commas, night, they are far less well known. peacocks and small tortoiseshells lay on nettles. Widespread Farmland is the main habitat species such as these will benefit from management that for over three quarters of British encourages a diversity of plants and habitat types on the farm. butterflies. Many butterflies and moths, both common and rare, Butterflies and moths vary in their mobility, with the more have suffered population declines, Caterpillars of the gatekeeper butterfly feed widespread species often able to travel large distances to feed but a range of measures can help on grasses © Mark Kilner CC BY NC SA 2.0 and lay eggs. Others, usually the habitat specialists, may be encourage them and increase their weak fliers and will need all their habitat requirements met in a numbers on farmland. small area. Moths and butterflies, such as these marbled whites, require suitable breeding habitat as Butterflies and moths have complex life cycles, comprising egg, well as nectar sources © Tara Proud caterpillar, pupa, and adult stages. Some species live as adults for Butterflies and climate change only a few days or weeks, while others live for many months and The red admiral butterfly used only to be seen as a summer hibernate over the winter. Some moths live as caterpillars for a visitor to Britain but, since the 1990s, it has been recorded few years. The most important requirements of adult butterflies overwintering here in ever-increasing numbers. They are and moths are suitable sites for laying their eggs and sufficient now seen in every month of the year, even flying amongst nectar sources to supply them with food. Sheltered areas are snowdrops in February! This is a sign of one impact of climate particularly important. Butterflies and moths will make use of all change on British wildlife. UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme areas of the farm - hedgerows, margins, meadows and grassland, data show that other butterflies, such as the speckled wood, wet flushes and patches of woodland. are expanding their ranges northwards in Butterflies will take nectar from a range of plants, but plants such response to warmer as knapweeds, scabious, thistles, marjoram, teasel, fleabane temperatures. By Close-up of comma butterfly eggs on and bird’s-foot trefoil are especially favoured. Because different linking habitats such common nettle © Gilles San Martin CC BY NC 3.0 butterfly and moth species are on the wing at different times as hedgerows and throughout the spring and summer it is important to have a woodlands to facilitate succession of flowering plants through the season. Early nectar movements across sources include sallow and blackthorn blossom, self-heal, the farmed landscape, primrose and lady’s smock, while important late sources of nectar butterflies and other are bramble and ivy. Berries, including blackberries, are also wildlife can be helped useful. Moths are important pollinators and some plants, such as to adapt to the the campions, have evolved to be pollinated by moths. changing climate. Breeding requirements vary according to the species. Some © Martin Warren, Butterfly Conservation moths and butterflies have very precise needs for egg-laying. Female silver-spotted skippers, for example, are extremely fussy, Silver-spotted skippers have precise laying single eggs on the leaf blades of sheep’s fescue in short requirements for egg-laying turf, up to 4cm, and often next to patches of bare ground. This, © Mark Kilner CC BY NC SA 2.0 and other so-called specialist species, often depend on tailored management to maintain the correct habitat. 90 Wildlife and Farming Wildlife and Farming 91 Butterflies & moths Habitat management Hedgerows and field margins Hedgerows are vital for these insects on farmland. Semi-natural grassland Butterflies will make great use of hedgerow Semi-natural grasslands containing nectar, such as bramble, and caterpillars of many wild grasses and flowers, such as butterflies and moths will feed on hedgerow unimproved calcareous or wet species. Hedgerows provide important shelter in grasslands, are some of the richest exposed agricultural landscapes. Leaving hedges habitats for butterflies. Semi-natural uncut, or cutting not more than once every three grasslands provide breeding habitat years, helps eggs and caterpillars to survive. Brown for over 90% of resident butterfly hairstreak butterflies, for example, lay their eggs on species, with just under half of young blackthorn, and the eggs need to overwinter these largely relying on calcareous safely before the caterpillars hatch and feed on the grassland. new leaves in spring. Butterflies and moths have suffered from overly intense hedge management. Management of calcareous grasslands The figure of eight moth, for example, has declined should aim for a mosaic of different by 95% over the last 35 years. The chalkhill blue butterfly is confined to calcareous grasslands habitats, with patches of bare ground Orange tip butterflies use cuckooflower both © Mark Kilner CC BY NC SA 2.0 and scrub, variations in sward height, and abundant as a nectar source and a caterpillar foodplant Field margins are very important for butterflies and moths, nectar sources. Most often this is achieved through © Guido Gerding CC BY SA 3.0 especially in arable areas (Box 21). Field margins that contain stock grazing. Management prescriptions are wildflowers (either sown or naturally regenerated) will be much usually site specific and, in all situations, the right more valuable than grass-only strips. Common blue butterflies, grazing pressure is vital for creating the desired for example, use bird’s foot trefoil both as a nectar source and habitat. a caterpillar foodplant, and orange tips use cuckooflower in the same way. Leaving some field margins uncut each year will allow Damp, unimproved grasslands, such as the culm plants to flower, and provide undisturbed breeding habitats. grasslands in the south-west of England, are A variety of sward heights will also benefit more species; for strongholds for some declining species such as the example, retention of nettle patches of different heights in sunny marsh fritillary butterfly. These and other species- locations will help small tortoiseshell and peacock butterflies. rich wet grasslands, such as floodplain meadows, Field margins adjacent to hedgerows or ditches are especially rely on the continuation of