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Butterfly Transect Sites Around the Malvern Hills

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Butterfly Transect Sites Around the Malvern Hills Butterfly transect sites around the Malvern Hills © OpenStreetMap contributors Butterflies & Day-flying Moths around the Malverns 2019 Contents Page Title Cover photo of Orange Underwing, Pinnacle Hill Feb-2019 Inside cover Butterfly transect sites around the Malvern Hills 1 Foreword 2 How to contribute to this Book 3 Introduction 4 Flight Times 5 Overview of the Butterfly Year 8 Transect Counts 2014-19 & Recorders 2019 10 Total Transect Counts 11 UKBMS Week by Week Transect Counts 13 Local Abundance & Trends 15 Population trends between 2011- 2019 17 Phenology trends 2011-2019 19 Butterfly Species Reports – 32 species 29 Report on Timed Counts of Grayling 2019 35 Day-flying Moths around the Malverns 37 A Very Small Study of Sturmia Bella Phil Taylor 2019 39 Acknowledgements 41 References 42 Index of Butterfly Species Reports 43 Gazetteer Foreword This report is designed to celebrate the diversity of butterflies and day- flying moths around the Malverns. It is compiled from the records of a large and increasing number of casual and transect recorders. Butterflies are one of the key indicators of the health of our environment. The wealth of data accumulated over recent years is analysed to provide population trends and an insight into the present state of our local wildlife. This information helps to inform wildlife organisations to consider appropriate wildlife management on the Malvern Hills, surrounding Commons & Meadows, and nearby local wildlife reserves. 1 There are plenty of opportunities to become more involved in recording and conservation work with the Malvern Butterfly Group and West Midland Butterfly Conservation, and also Malvern Hills Trust and Worcestershire Wildlife Trust. Check the online websites / email adresses for more details. Many thanks to all those who have contributed to this report. All contributors are listed and acknowledged at the end of the book. Mel Mason Malvern Butterfly Group MBG West Midlands Butterfly Conservation WMBC [email protected] How to contribute to this Book: You can share your butterfly and moth sightings at: Facebook Malvern Butterfly Group – local WMBC members Facebook BC West Midlands butterflies and moths – all WMBC members Please submit all records of sightings at: iRecord online or using the app on your smartphone: https://www.brc.ac.uk/irecord/ or send to: Malvern Butterfly Group on a pro-forma available on request at: [email protected] Go to https://gridreferencefinder.com/ to find the grid reference For more information from around the West Midlands: West Midlands Butterfly Conservation website at: https://www.westmidlands-butterflies.org.uk 2 Introduction This report is compiled from a combination of transect and casual records. Fourteen transects are walked by volunteers on a weekly basis from April to September and counts are submitted to UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (UKBMS). Local transect counts are analysed to give an overview of the abundance of local butterfly species. In addition to nearly 40,000 transect records, more than 6500 butterfly and day-moth casual sightings with grid references were submitted to Malvern Butterfly Group (MBG). Contributors are acknowledged at the end of this report, although notable records are linked to the observer’s initials given to authorise species records. Details of site locations are also given at the end. Butterfly Conservation produced an important report called “The State of the UK’s Butterflies 2015” with the headline “40 year slump for UK Butterflies”. More than three quarters of UK’s butterfly species have declined in either abundance or occurrence (or both) in the last 40 years with some common species suffering significant slumps. In previous years, nine transects were used to determine the changes in annual abundance of butterflies around the Malverns. Overall, based on the average adjusted transect total on nine sites, butterfly numbers in 2019 (2284) are the highest since before 2011 compared with 2018 (1866) 2017 (1992) and 2016 (1137), 2015 (1583), 2014 (1618), 2013 (1557), 2012 (941) and 2011 (1269). These figures show an increase of 22% since 2018. Furthermore, using records collected from 14 local transect sites around the Malverns, the average adjusted transect total in 2019 (2785) is even higher, and show an increase of 34% since 2018. Flight Times The table on page 4 shows the flight times and the state in winter of all the butterfly species recorded in recent years. Leaflet Butterflies around the Malvern Hills This free leaflet is available by visiting the Malvern Hills Trust, Manor House, Grange Road, Malvern, WR14 3EY and the Local Tourist Office, The Lyttelton Well Courtyard, 6 Church Street, Malvern WR14 2AY. It includes an identification chart of 36 species, a distribution map, caterpillar foodplants and habitat hotspots. 3 Flight Times (taken from local records over recent years) Flight Times Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Winter Butterfly species 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 State Red Admiral butterfly Peacock butterfly Small Tortoiseshell butterfly Comma butterfly Brimstone butterfly Small White chrysalis Holly Blue chrysalis Orange-tip chrysalis Speckled Wood cat.& chrysalis Green-veined White chrysalis Large White chrysalis Small Copper caterpillar Painted Lady migrant Green Hairstreak chrysalis Dingy Skipper caterpillar Brown Argus caterpillar Small Heath caterpillar Common Blue caterpillar Large Skipper caterpillar Meadow Brown caterpillar Ringlet caterpillar Marbled White caterpillar Gatekeeper caterpillar Small Skipper Colour KEY caterpillar Essex Skipper TRANSECT RECORDS egg Purple Hairstreak egg White Admiral CASUAL SIGHTING caterpillar Silver-washed F. caterpillar Small Pearl-B. F. LOWER ABUNDANCES caterpillar White-letter H. between generations egg Grayling caterpillar Dark Green Fritillary caterpillar Clouded Yellow migrant Drab Looper Moth chrysalis Six-spot B. Moth caterpillar Scarlet Tiger Moth caterpillar 4 Overview of the local butterfly year Population trends… The significant increase of 34% in the overall abundance of butterfly numbers on our transect sites this year masks the significant variation in abundances on different sites. Four sites showed overall declines between 7 and 30%, while half of local species declined in numbers compared with 2018. In other words, the larger numbers this year largely depended on significant increases of some of our most common species. In warm and sunny conditions during February, many tens of Orange Underwing moths emerged earlier than usual to fly around the upper branches of birch trees along the Hills but especially around the upper slopes of Pinnacle Hill over a period of several weeks. All four butterfly hibernators emerged in the same month including separate casual sightings before April of 45 Brimstone, 17 Small Tortoiseshell, 13 Peacock and 11 Comma – record numbers for this time of year since before 2014. Orange- tip also emerged in good numbers towards the end of March, just before the start of the transect counts, and continued in flight up to 21-Jun including 119 casual reports. Other early butterflies include a remarkably early Small White on 25-Feb, followed by regular sightings from 24-Mar of Red Admiral, Speckled Wood and Holly Blue. Spring and summer experienced regular periods of wet then dry weather and transect records indicate very high abundances of five species that represent 80% of the total butterfly count in 2019: Meadow Brown 45%, Ringlet 11%, Marbled White 10%, Gatekeeper 9.5% and Speckled Wood 4%. The remaining 20% include Common Blue 2.5%, Small/Essex Skipper 3%, Small White 2% and Green-veined White 2%. None of the remaining 22 species exceeded 1.5% and most were well under 1% of the total recorded. Marbled White numbers have increased dramatically in recent years competing with Ringlet to take second place on several sites this year. Conversely, the following species have significantly reduced in numbers in 2019 compared with the averages between 2011-2018: Green-veined White -67%, Large White -39%, Small Tortoiseshell -29%, Comma -28%, Small Copper -24%, Small White -23% and Large Skipper -19%. Painted Lady shows the most significant increase of 607% in numbers since 2018 and also 674% increase compared with the average between 2011-2018. This migrant butterfly was reported migrating in millions from North Africa across the Mediterranean in early spring. 5 The least common species do not appear to have significantly changed in 2019 compared with recent years. However, Grayling timed counts in 2019 [33] show similar numbers to 2018 [35] and 2017 [37] and higher than the lowest recorded in 2016 [25] and 2015 [26] but significantly lower than the benchmark number of 56 in 2013. Surprise sightings… a Swallowtail was photographed on the top of North Hill on 23-Jul [Claire Alcock] and probably a release from a nearby wedding ceremony. More interestingly, a Wall was photographed on the eastern slopes of North Hill on 24-Jul [John Howes] which encouraged another casual recorder to forward a photograph of another Wall on nearby Worcestershire Beacon taken the previous year on 16-Aug [Edward Betteridge]. Both these sightings suggest this species maybe migrating from nearby sites in Shropshire in an attempt to recolonise the Malvern Hills – previously recorded in 2009 and 2010. Butterfly Walks & Garden Open Days Members and non-members from local wildlife organisations joined 11 local butterfly walks and an ID/transect training day between June-August 2019 – guided by local transect recorders. Visitors were also invited to a local garden along Abbey Road to view up to 22 butterfly species – including White-letter Hairstreak - in June & July plus, in August, the garden’s first recorded sighting of Grayling. Malvern Three Counties Spring & Autumn Shows 2019 WMBC organised stalls at both events to celebrate our local wildlife, to encourage visitors to record sightings, and to promote conservation & volunteer work with WMBC, MHT and WWT.
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