BEN HOARE
Editorial consultant
LAURIE JACKSON
Wildlife tour leader
ED DREWITT
Naturalist
E L L E N H U S A I N
Film-maker
This month’s panel
We solve your
wildlife mysteries.
Email your questions to
[email protected]
More amazing facts at
discoverwildlife.com
RICHARD JONES
Entomologist
HELEN SCALES
Marine biologist
LEOMA WILLIAMS
Science writer
Hare: Andy Rouse/NPL; butterfly: Silvia Reiche/Minden/FLPA
A
bout 70 species of butterfly
have been seen in Britain.
That total is frustratingly low
compared to other northern
European countries – Sweden,
say, has around 120 species. All
our butterflies colonised after
the retreat of the last great ice
sheet, about 15,000 years ago.
When the ice melted, rising sea
levels flooded the Doggerland
land bridge to the continent and
created the English Channel,
and for most butterflies the
43km-wide Dover-Calais strait
is too big a barrier. Only a few
strong-flying, adventurous
species, such as the painted
lady and clouded yellow, can
manage it. The map butterfly
and the European swallowtail are
potential colonists in the near
future, but most butterflies move
only a few hundred metres from
their hatching grounds. Butterfly
colonisation is more likely to be
through the horticultural trade
- the South African geranium
bronze was a near miss in 1997.
Richard Jones
How come Britain doesn’t have more butter ies?
LEPIDOPTERA
Could the map
butterfly chart
a course to the
UK one day?