Species Fact Sheet No. HIGH BROWN FRITILLARY 13

What do they look like? The high brown is a beautiful chequered with golden orange upper wings and rows of black dots. The wingspan is around 60-67 mm. The underside of the butterfly is orange with rows of silver spots and a characteristic row of red ringed spots towards the outer margin.

How else might I recognise one? This large butterfly can be seen from late June to mid August, flying swiftly over the tops of or low vegetation in woodland clearings. It frequently visits flowers such as thistles and brambles where it will sit with its wings open feeding on the nectar. Classification Kingdom: Animalia What do they eat? Phylum: Arthropoda The caterpillar’s food plant is usually Class: Insecta the common dog violet, but the butterfly will look for the nectar on thistles and Order: brambles. Family: Genus: Argynnis Where do they live? Species: A. adippe The two main types of habitat that are used by the high brown fritillary are bracken-dominated areas or grass/bracken mixed areas. Formerly the butterfly occurred in woodland clearings probably where bracken was also present. Why are they special to Worcestershire? Nationally, the numbers of the butterfly have massively declined since the 1950s. It is currently found in three areas on the Malvern Hills. Populations used also to occur in the Wyre Forest and at the Knapp and Papermill Reserve, but it is now thought to have been lost from these locations.

Did you know? The high brown fritillary over-winters as eggs which are laid on dead bracken. The caterpillars hatch in early spring and bask in the dead bracken. This is much warmer than surrounding vegetation and allows the caterpillars to develop more quickly. The caterpillars look like dead bracken leaves or fronds. This hides them from predators.

Problems and solutions? The loss of coppice woodland (where trees and shrubs are cut down at 7 to 14 year intervals to provide a supply of short, straight poles) is thought to have been a major factor in the decline of this species, as it used to be abundant in the larger coppice woodlands of England and Wales. The higher light levels that tend to be found in coppice woodland encourages the growth of violets - the caterpillars food plant.

The Malvern populations are not found in coppice woodland but on bracken-covered slopes, where violets grow under the bracken canopy. Since 1993 work has been carried out on these sites to find out more about the numbers of that are breeding there, and also understand their habitat management requirements better. In 1998 the High Brown Hills Project was formed to undertake scrub removal and bracken management on the hills, in the hope that this will help maintain the Malvern Hills populations. However, recent counts of the species have not shown the increases hoped for, but habitat work and monitoring will continue.

What can I do to help? Learn to identify this attractive butterfly, and also the other types of fritillary butterfly. Introduce plants such as buddleia, oxeye daisy or cat mint to your own or the school garden to attract butterflies.

Food Chain violet high brown caterpillar blue tit

Find out more www.worcestershire.gov.uk/biodiversity Click on View the Action Plans. www.butterfly-conservation.org is the web site of Butterfly Conservation, and contains a range of information, guidance pictures etc. relating to butterflies At http://www.lincstrust.co.uk/facts/gardenbf.html you can find some details from the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust on particular plants that are suitable for butterflies.

Further copies of this factsheet can be downloaded from www.worcestershire.gov.uk/biodiversity