Butterfly Conservation Regional Action Plan for the West Midlands Compiled by Jenny Joy & Mike Williams Butterfly Conservation Report S08-19 Front Cover Photographs Dark Green Fritillary by Steven Cheshire Drab Looper by Kevin McGee Back Cover Photographs Yellow-legged Clearwing by David Grundy View over Whixall Moss by Steven Cheshire Silver-studded Blue by Stephen Lewis Butterfly Conservation Regional Action Plan for the West Midlands Compiled by Jenny Joy & Mike Williams With significant help from Mike Slater, Nigel Stone and John Tilt and contributions from John Bryan, Trevor Bucknall, David Brown, Jane Ellis, Dean Fenton, Dave Grundy, Michael Harper, Ian Hart, David Jackson, Stephen Lewis, Tony Simpson, Richard Southwell and Keith Warmington July 2008 Includes information on Birmingham and Black Country, Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, and Worcestershire which are covered by Butterfly Conservation’s Warwickshire and West Midlands Branches. Butterfly Conservation Report S08-19 Company limited by guarantee, registered in England (2206468) Registered Office: Manor Yard, East Lulworth, Wareham, Dorset, BH20 5QP Charity registered in England & Wales (254937) and in Scotland (SCO39268) www.butterfly-conservation.org Warwickshire Branch web site: www.warwickshire-butterflies.org.uk West Midlands Branch web site: www.westmidlandsbutterflyconservation.org.uk West Midlands Regional Action Plan 2008 Executive Summary 1. This new publication represents an update of the West Midlands Regional Action Plan (RAP) published in 1997. This plan was the first regional strategy document for Lepidoptera produced by Butterfly Conservation in the UK and was intended as a guide to conservation priorities for partner organisations involved in the local biodiversity action planning (LBAP) process. The West Midlands RAP has been very successful in this aim with most Biodiversity Action Plans for the counties making up the West Midlands region now including plans for declining and endangered butterfly and moth species found in their areas. 2. Further recording and survey work over the subsequent ten years has considerably added to our knowledge of the distribution of the region’s butterflies and moths and ecological research means that we are now much better informed about the conservation needs and priorities for the region. A review of the original RAP is therefore timely. Over the past five years in particular, largely as a result of the appointment of regional staff working in partnership with branch volunteers and external organisations, Butterfly Conservation has been able to develop a number of landscape level initiatives (which are documented in this report) aimed at tackling some of the problems affecting butterflies and moths. Such initiatives are key to reversing the fortunes of our declining species 3. In 2001, Butterfly Conservation published The Millennium Atlas of Butterflies in Britain and Ireland (Asher et al) which highlighted worrying declines affecting many of our butterflies. These declines have continued and are further highlighted in the recent The State of Butterflies in Britain and Ireland (Fox et al, 2006a) which plots the fortunes of Britain’s butterflies over the subsequent five years. The recording effort that underpinned these two publications is reflected in the revised West Midlands RAP which includes new distribution maps for our key species. The maps show the distribution of all key priority species pre 1995 and for the period 1995-2007. 4. These national declines documented in the aforementioned reports can also be seen at a regional level. While, as a result of considerable conservation effort on the part of Butterfly Conservation and partner organisations, the decline of some species has been slowed, there are mounting concerns about other species including some that had previously been quite widespread in the region. These changes are highlighted in the revised regional priority list (see page 8) and also the fact that new butterfly species have been added to the UK BAP list when this was revised last year. Reasons are given for these changes in this report. 5. While our knowledge of the status and conservation requirements of the region’s moths is not as complete as that for butterflies there has been a huge upsurge of interest in moths both regionally and nationally over the past ten years and we have been able to give much more emphasis to moths in the revised RAP than had been possible in the original publication. This increased interest has been greatly assisted by the production of a new Field Guide to the Moths of Great Britain and Ireland (Waring and Townsend, 2003), together with the publication of a number of local county-based atlases within the region. There are now an increasing number of active moth recorders regionally, some of whom are specialising in microlepidoptera as well as the more usual macro-moths. A number of new initiatives have been developed regionally including a Garden Moth Survey (www.gms.staffs-ecology.org.uk) which will increasingly produce valuable data on the distribution and status of our moths. Nationally, Butterfly Conservation has produced a report on the status of the larger moths (Fox et al., 2006b) and has recently launched a major recording initiative known as Moths Count. 4 West Midlands Regional Action Plan 2008 6. The report has been divided into two main sections covering the key butterflies and moths separately. Species accounts and/or statements are given for all high priority butterflies and moths and information is also provided on a secondary list of medium and low priority species. Each of the species accounts provide information on the distribution of the butterfly or moth regionally, particular threats affecting the species, what survey and monitoring work is taking place, any management work or conservation initiatives underway, and is followed by targets and required actions over the next five years. 7. At the end of each section, references are provided to the major publications and reports that have been used in the compilation of this report. The editors are grateful to the authors of these reports for allowing us to make use of their data and conclusions. 8. The challenges facing butterflies and moths in our rapidly changing environment are very real. Continued fragmentation, deterioration and loss of wildlife habitats is combined with the uncertainties of our changing climate. Butterflies and moths are very sensitive indicators of what is happening to our wider biodiversity. It is important for us all that they and their habitats are effectively conserved. It is hoped that the publication of this new Regional Action Plan will serve as a useful tool to the two regional Butterfly Conservation branches and our many partner organisations in shaping their future strategies and actions and ensuring a positive future for our butterflies and moths. Jenny Joy and Mike Williams July 2008 Silver-studded Blue by Steven Cheshire 5 West Midlands Regional Action Plan 2008 Contents 1. Background and General Aims 7 PART II: Moths 91 5.1 High Priority Moth List 91 PART I: Butterflies 8 5.2 Location of High Priority Moths 92 2.1 Regional Priority List 8 5.3 Species Accounts and Species Statements 95 2.2 Methods for Assigning Regional Priorities 9 5.3.1 Lampronia capitella 97 2.3 Landscape Level Projects 10 5.3.2 Nemophora fasciella 98 2.4 Key to Distribution Maps and Tables 13 5.3.3 Goat Moth 99 3. Species Accounts - High Priority Species 14 5.3.4 Forester 101 3.1.1 Dingy Skipper 14 5.3.5 Nemapogon picarella 103 3.1.2 Grizzled Skipper 18 5.3.6 Phyllonorycter sagitella 104 3.1.3 Wood White 22 5.3.7 Welsh Clearwing 106 3.1.4 Brown Hairstreak 26 5.3.8 Coleophora wockeella 108 3.1.5 White-letter Hairstreak 30 5.3.9 Coleophora vibicella 109 3.1.6 Small Blue 33 5.3.10 Aplota palpella 110 3.1.7 Silver-studded Blue 36 5.3.11 Agonopterix atomella 111 3.1.8 White Admiral 39 5.3.12 Syncopacma albipalpella 112 3.1.9 Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary 42 5.3.13 Celypha woodiana 113 3.1.10 Pearl-bordered Fritillary 46 5.3.14 Grapholita pallifrontana 115 3.1.11 High Brown Fritillary 50 5.3.15 Anania funebris 116 3.1.12 Dark Green Fritillary 54 5.3.16 Sciota hostilis 117 3.1.13 Wall 58 5.3.17 Dingy Mocha 119 3.1.14 Grayling 61 5.3.18 False Mocha 120 3.1.15 Large Heath 65 5.3.19 Chalk Carpet 121 3.1.16 Small Heath 69 5.3.20 Argent & Sable 123 3.2 Species Accounts - Medium Priority Species 71 5.3.21 Pauper Pug 126 3.2.1 Green Hairstreak 71 5.3.22 Waved Carpet 128 3.2.2 Brown Argus 75 5.3.23 Drab Looper 130 3.2.3 Silver-washed Fritillary 78 5.3.24 Barred Tooth-striped 132 3.3 Notes on Low Priority Species 82 5.3.25 Narrow-bordered Bee Hawk 134 5.3.26 Lunar Yellow Underwing 135 4. References 84 5.3.27 Pale Shining Brown 136 5.3.28 Bordered Gothic 137 5.3.29 Silurian 138 5.3.30 Sword-grass 140 5.3.31 Orange Upperwing 141 5.3.32 White-spotted Pinion 142 5.3.33 Common Fan-foot 143 6. Medium Priority Moth List 146 7. References 148 8. Acknowledgements 151 6 West Midlands Regional Action Plan 2008 1. Background and General Aims The Action for Butterflies Project and Regional Action Plans: Their role within Butterfly Conservation and the Biodiversity planning process. Background to the Biodiversity planning process At the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, the UK Government signed the Convention on Biological Diversity which required the development of a national strategy. In early 1994, the Government produced the UK Biodiversity Action Plan which adopted a systematic approach whereby targets are used to focus conservation action.